Scotmid Co-operative. Scotland and Northern England

“Introducing any new equipment to a business as large as Scotmid can cause issues, but RATIONAL provides in depth and comprehensive support. They’ve been fantastic, from day one, the level of support we’ve had has been above and beyond. This includes comprehensive training for staff to make sure they know the full capabilities of the equipment, as well as post-sales support. Knowing there’s someone who’s able to answer any questions, or help with any issues we have, is great.” - Danny Scobie, Manager of Food to go Operations.

Expanding with modern equipment.

Scotmid Co-operative is a community retailer with 188 convenience store outlets throughout Scotland and Northern England. With a commitment to using as much local produce as possible, it has established a reputation for the quality of the food it sells.

Alongside the standard supermarket range, it provides a range of food to go, from breakfast rolls to fresh sandwiches, soups, burgers, chicken, baked potatoes and much more besides. Recently, they launched an evening food to go service in five locations, with a menu featuring freshly cooked pizza and gourmet burgers.

“When we began to plan expanding our food to go offer, we soon realised that we would need modern equipment,” says Danny Scobie, Manager of Food to go Operations. “After we saw what was out there, RATIONAL was the logical choice.”

Scotmid has now installed RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter^® XS models in a number of stores, with more locations being added regularly.

“RATIONAL have given us great flexibility with our menu, making it far easier to offer freshly made and baked goods. For example, the SelfCookingCenter^® allows us to prepare pizzas with the kind of finish that you get from a stone baked oven, or chicken just as if it was deep fat fried – but without the fat!”

Danny Scobie, Manager of Food to go Operations

The RATIONAL Solution.

The SelfCookingCenter^® XS is a compact table top unit with a footprint of only 55.5cm x 65.5cm. It can hold six 2/3 GN pans at once, and is capable of a maximum output of 80 meals a day. This makes it ideal for locations with less space, and multiple units can be stacked using RATIONAL's Combi Duo system to further expand production capacity.

RATIONAL's advanced iCookingControl system technology allows operators to set the parameters for each recipe. The SelfCookingCenter^® iCookingControl constantly monitors the food and automatically adjusts the cooking time and temperature to guarantee consistent results. This also allows for different foods to be cooked simultaneously, with the system making adjustments as required.

“They're very simple to operate,” says Danny. “The staff love how easy the touch screen makes controlling it. Actually, it took a bit of getting used to at first simply because it was so consistent - they were expecting to have to do more work!” “I would recommend the SelfCookingCenter^® to any business, it's already transformed our fresh food offer as well as providing us with a strong foundation from which to continue our journey.”