Historically, a picnic basket was literally a basket used to transport food and other supplies to have a meal, usually lunch, out in nature. These days most picnic baskets are more like backpacks, but their fundamental purpose — to transport food, plates, drink, and cutlery — remains the same. Relax and enjoy quality time with friends, family or corporate picnic Sydney with your colleagues in Sydney’s favourite garden.

Classic-style picnic baskets are still available from a number of producers. These baskets are usually made of wicker or a similar material. They consist of a single large storage space, usually with a handle and flaps that open at both ends on the top. These baskets are suitable for transporting food and liquid relatively short distances, but temperature control is not possible and often the food will undergo some trauma. More advanced wicker picnic baskets, such as English style hampers, have clips on the inside to hold plates, utensils, and a large picnic cloth.

Picnic totes are the other basic type of picnic basket available on the market. These serve essentially the same function as a traditional picnic basket, but more closely resemble a backpack. They come equipped with a wide array of clips and sleeves for all manner of flatware, napkins, cloths, and plates. They also usually have holsters on the side or front to hold bottles of wine or juice. The obvious advantage of a tote over a traditional basket is the greatly reduced difficulty in carrying it for long distances, as the weight is much better distributed. Additionally, totes are usually well padded to help protect the food from damage during transport.

More expensive totes include systems to help regulate the temperature of food and liquid being transported. This may involve heavy insulation on the entire tote, or different areas for hot and cold food. Many totes, even those which don’t regulate the temperature of the food, have insulation on their wine sleeves to ensure that the wine remains at its appropriate temperature.

Picnic baskets and picnic totes come in all manner of shapes, sizes and colors. Varieties are available for specific functions, such as plastic beach totes. Prices vary drastically, from US$20 for a simple traditional basket to over US$300 for a well-insulated, durable picnic tote.

A wide range of picnic accessories are also usually available wherever picnic baskets are sold. Accessories may include disposable utensils, unbreakable plates, cushioned cloths for place settings, and a variety of thermoses — including those designed especially for serving wine. Go here for more information about picnic.

When you have your own helicopter and guide, you do heli skiing Canada or ride what you want, when you want—from epic chutes and perfectly spaced trees to stunning alpine bowls and runs of up to 4,500 vertical. Cores, edges, sidewall, topsheet. That’s just the beginning of a ski’s construction elements. What are they, and why are they important to you when you get on the snow? We’re breaking it down so you can impress your friends on the lift.

Previously, our ski design guru Olaf took you through the definitions of Camber, Rocker, Sidecut and Taper, so now you should have a basic understanding of how the shape of your ski interacts with the snow. This time, we’re discussing the anatomy (or guts) of your ski, and the role that each piece plays.

The best way to do this is to chop a ski in half, and start from the bottom, up. Don’t literally do that on your own, that’s just a waste of a good ski.

THE BASE

People constantly say “Well aren’t bases just P-Tex?” They’re wrong, but think of P-Tex as a brand name, kind of like  ChapStick – except in this case it isn’t some glorious lip moisturizer, it’s actually a brand name of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMW-PE). This is a very durable plastic product that has micro-pores that open to accept wax, and contract to hold it there. It’s great because it performs well at a variety of temperatures, and is very easy to bond to when producing the skis. The biggest conversation we hear everyone talk about is extruded vs. sintered, and a common misconception is that they are a different material. Nope! This designation refers to how the UHMW-PE is made in to sheets. The first method, extruded, is much like pasta where a large amount of viscous material is pushed through an opening to make a sheet. Sintered material combines the PE on a molecular level at a temperature and pressure just short of melting, so that the material never actually becomes viscous. For both methods of production there are different molecular weight finished products, the general rule of thumb is the higher weight the less porous and faster the base.

EDGES

I will start off with a broad statement that may come as a shock to most of you, but all edges are created equal. Believe it or not, but there are only two widely used ski and snowboard edge producers in the world. What we do have control of, however, are how our edge teeth are configured and the Rockwell hardness of the steel (and in some cases further heat treatment of the edges). Edge teeth refers to the portion of the ski edge which you can’t see, because it’s embedded in to the ski. This is what holds your edge tight between your base and your core (along with rubber which we’ll discuss later). In almost all cases that I’ve found, the thickness of this section is 0.7mm thick, but what we do have control over is the configuration of the teeth. Here, at Armada, we use a solid rail with perforations, rather than what you might typically see as a “T” type tooth. We do this so that in the event your edge cracks, there is a greater chance of the edge staying in tact rather than being ripped out. Then the basic dimensions you have are the height, width, and step.  The height refers to the overall height of the edge, the step refers to the height of the edge where the base will occupy, and the width refers to the measurement of the edge that contacts the snow.

The hardness of the steel is also a measurable characteristic, and most edges you see are going to be Rockwell Hardness 48 on the C scale. This hardness is determined by a standardized test in which a machine indents the steel, and they are broken down in to 7 categories (A-G).  Some companies use softer metal on their park skis to promote deformation rather than cracking.

RUBBER

The rubber in your skis serves two purposes: the first is to create a bonding (or shear) layer in between two materials that either don’t like to bond, or undergo lots of different stresses. The first, and most important place for this is above your edges and underneath the first composite layer. Without this layer, all of the chattering and vibration that your edges see when they interact with the snow would likely cause the bond between the edge and the composite to break, tearing out your edge. You will also see rubber placed in the binding mounting area, to promote further bonding between the topsheet and top layer of composite. The second function of the rubber is for vibration dampening, which as you can guess from the description above, goes hand in hand with its “shear layer” characteristics.

LOWER COMPOSITE LAYER

We’ve arrived at the first of two of our composites layers, probably the easiest layer to modify and the hardest to understand. Your composites layers are comprised of fabrics (like fiberglass, carbon, aramid, Kevlar, etc.) with all of their pores and voids being saturated (and constrained) by epoxy. Composite fibers are most generally placed in one of 4 directions: 0° (parallel to the ski length), 90° (perpendicular to the ski length), and + or – 45° (though getting weaves at different angles is becoming easier and easier). 0° fibers give strength to the ski in the way that most people would think, longitudinally (think of the first way you always test a skis flex). 0° fibers help the most in wider skis in keeping the whole ski flat. With a lack of fibers in this direction, it’s likely that the ski can cup during production because of the heat changes and internal strain during the epoxy curing stage. + and – 45° fibers can be very useful, as they can aid in longitudinal stiffness, flatness, and torsional strength, as they have a portion of their strength going on both directions, parallel to the length of the ski, and perpendicular.

It should be noted that these composites layer would have no purpose if it wasn’t for the epoxy system used during the layup of the ski. The epoxy consists of a resin and a hardener which are mixed together just prior to layup and used to “glue” all of the layers together. All of the voids in the fiberglass must be filled to constrain the fibers after the epoxy hardens, and this constraint gives them their strength.

THE CORE

There are three main functions of your ski’s core: the first is to act as a spacer between the composites layers of the ski. The further apart these two composite layers are (or thicker the ski), the more effect they are going to have on the flex, and stiffer the ski will be. The second function of the core is to provide dampening, denser materials (hardwoods) will provide more dampening between the composites than a softwood or a foam. The third function is binding retention, which is why you will often see hardwoods under foot where the screws will be placed for your bindings. This is generally why cores are a mix of heavy and light woods, with the heavy, dense woods underfoot (ash, maple, oak, etc.), or at the center of the ski, and the light woods (poplar, aspen, paulownia, etc.) everywhere else to keep the mass down.

SIDEWALLS

Sidewalls provide a number of functions, the most important two being waterproofing the ski, and second being providing impact durability. It’s argued that a full length sidewall ski provides better edge pressure in a turn over a cap ski, but in reality the amount of material over the edge is very similar, and probably not even a measurable factor for the average skier. In fact, sidewalls being what we might call a “dumb” material (meaning that it provides no flexural integrity to the ski, and really only weight), limiting the amount of sidewall in the ski is the biggest goal. One if its positive factors, waterproofing the ski, comes in to play because if the core simply extended through, it would be exposed to the elements. With sidewalls in its place, you have essentially encapsulated the entire core (which is susceptible to water damage) in an envelope of plastic, or non-permeable materials. The second is impact protection, as both fiberglass and your core aren’t very good with impacts, placing a sidewall material like UHMW-PE or ABS and absorb some of the impact, and possible give a more durable product. The alternative to sidewalls is a cap construction, in which the topsheet and fiberglass wrap around the edge of the core and terminate at the edge, still encapsulating the core as well. This construction is lighter, but can be perceived as cheap, as it doesn’t include any sidewall materials. We at Armada have chosen a hybrid sidewall/cap construction with our AR50 sidewalls, placing sidewall underfoot where you need it, and capping the nose and tail to keep swing weight down.

UPPER COMPOSITE LAYER

Most of the time this layer is the same or very similar to your lower composite layer so that there isn’t any warping or twisting due to different masses during curing. Generally, the upper composite layer will include some extra fiberglass underfoot (called a “binding mat”) to aid in screw retention.

TOPSHEET

Ah yes, the last stop on our trip and most definitely the prettiest. The topsheet mostly consists of a sublimation graphic (an image essentially baked in to the backside of the plastic), screen printed designs, or a combination of both. After the graphic is applied, the topsheet must be heat treated so that the pores are prepared for bonding. Then the plastic (generally a nylon, TPU, PE, or combination of the above) is placed as the final layer of our layup.

There is nothing better than a great Australian bbq, not your sausage sizzle, but a high quality bbq using top quality ingredients and prepared by professional bbq catering Sydney chefs. As we approach the end of the business year, many caterers are wondering how their company’s profitability compares to that of other caterers, and other types of businesses. Catering can be among the most gainful hospitality industry sectors, but having a clear understanding of the industry standards for profit is very important for the long-term success of any catering business.

What is the range of expected annual percentage profit for all caterers?

Having managed and consulted for caterers of all different types and sizes, the CCU has seen a wide range of financial results. At the high end, there are caterers that have consistently shown pretax profit of over 25%, an impressive percentage in any industry. We also know of caterers that have barely been able to eke out any profit in the entire life of their companies. But the average pretax profit of all of the caterers we have worked with over the years has been 7% to 8%. For purposes of comparison, the average pretax profit in the full service restaurant industry is 3% to 4%.

What are some shared characteristics of highly profitable caterers?

One common trait of most of the extremely profitable caterers we have worked with—those consistently showing pretax profits of 15% or more—is that they tend to be single market focused caterers. Some examples might be an on premises caterer that just does weddings, or a corporate caterer that only does deliveries, or a full service caterer that solely does venue based events. Multi-market caterers have some of their own advantages—they tend to get larger quicker, and they can more easily survive a cyclical downturn in the economy. But the tradeoff is that broadline caterers are often not as profitable on a percentage basis as their single market peers.

Are higher end caterers more profitable than mid-market caterers?

Based on industry surveys of restaurants, the best menu price point to maximize profits for restaurants is in the middle of the market. This means a price point above fast casual and quick serve restaurants, but below very high-end restaurants. There has never been a similar price point versus profitability survey done of the catering industry. However, based on an informal review of caterer profitability by price point, we believe that midrange caterers are generally more profitable than either boutique caterers or budget caterers.

This many seem somewhat counterintuitive, since boutique caterers often capture the very high-end events, which generate much higher per guest revenue. But boutique caterers generally have a smaller base of revenue over which to spread their fixed costs, while at the same time are required to purchase the most expensive products and employ the most skilled staff. Most of the highly profitable single market caterers as described above are mid-market operators.

Does the legal and tax structure of my business impact my expected profit?

Yes. Since Subchapter C corporations pay taxes through the corporations rather than through the owners (as is the case with Subchapter S corporations), a C corporation will often show higher unadjusted profits. Another example—a company that is organized as an LLC is required to pay its members (effectively partners) through distributions of profit rather than through payroll, which also may artificially inflate profits in comparison to other non-LLC caterers.

What are the most effective tools to use in order to improve the profitability of a catering company?

As is the case with any type of business, having a clear understanding of how your catering company is performing financially on a timely and ongoing basis is crucial. There are a number of tools that should be part of the financial management system for every caterer. Here’s a look:

A bookkeeping system with a properly organized chart of accounts. Virtually all caterers, even the smallest mom and pop companies, can afford to use a modern computerized bookkeeping system. But without a well thought-out chart of accounts, these systems may not provide as much useful information on their various reports as they should. As an example, we see many caterers who lump all of their revenue into a single income account. However, it is clearly advantageous to have revenue accounts reflecting the different line items that most caterers charge—food, beverage, labor, rentals, venue fees, outside services, etc.

On the other side of the coin, there are catering companies that have too much detail in their financial reports. If you find your income statements/profit and loss reports hard to understand, then the odds are you have too many accounts.

A practical way to analyze the profitability of individual events. The profitability of any catering company is the aggregate of the profit and loss of each of its individual events. It is crucial that every caterer has the tools available to analyze individual events. Most of the catering software systems on the market today have this functionality built into the system, though some caterers use a basic spreadsheet system to do this as well.

Regular reviews of key performance indicators/metrics. There are a number of KPIs that are specific to different types of caterers—a few examples are food cost, event labor cost, kitchen labor cost, gross profit, cost of occupancy, break even, and receivables turnover, to name a few. These metrics are usually extracted from monthly profit and loss reports, using a spreadsheet. Once the spreadsheet is set up, it should only take a short amount of time to extract and review these numbers on each month.

Experienced and knowledgeable professional support. CPAs and consultants each perform a different but necessary role in providing expert advice to help caterers grow their businesses. The key to a successful relationship with professional services providers is to make sure that you work with those with experience and expertise in the catering/events industry.

These and other systems can help every caterer achieve a level of profitability, which makes the catering industry a highly desirable business. Go here to have a successful catering business.