Dome trials for soup chain

London group General Practice and freelance consultant Clare Fry are working on a retail format for soup manufacturer The New Covent Garden Soup Company.

The format will mark the client’s entrance into high-street café retailing and will be used as a basis for a kiosk in the Millennium Dome.

General Practice is working on interiors, with Fry looking at graphics and brand identity.

The NCGSC is one of ten food and beverage retailers appointed by The New Millennium Experience Company to cater for the Dome’s visitors.

The company currently operates one own-brand kiosk in London’s Victoria station. The new project will see its “rustic, home-kitchen” brand values developed into a chain of full-sized high-street café outlets, says General Practice director George Georgiou.

An NCGSC spokeswoman says a launch date has not been set for the new format, and declines to reveal how many outlets are planned. But, she concedes at least one outlet will launch before the Dome opens at the end of the year.

The NMEC expects to appoint three final catering companies to the Dome in the near future.

See News Analysis, page 7