Royal Voluntary Service
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Experience of delivering and operating high quality retail & catering services

We have operated and delivered industry leading retail & catering solutions since 1938, and are one of the largest hospital retailers, operating over 200 cafés and shops across Britain.

We have a broad portfolio of cafés and shops operating across hospitals, surgeries, courts, cemeteries, and sport & leisure centres. Units range in size from small settings serving a few hundred people a week to larger cafés generating over £1m annual turnover.

We are committed to ensuring the success of our cafés and units so we can maximise profit generation and therefore reinvest in our charitable work in the NHS and communities across Great Britain.

To achieve this, we have:

  • An experienced management team, with expertise in retail & café operations.
  • Central support teams, including finance, human resources, training, marketing, safety and compliance, trading, and store support.

Whilst maximising our profits is important, we also ensure we:

  • Provide a safe and welcoming environment for customers and staff.
  • Offer good value for money.
  • Provide excellent customer service.
  • Offer high quality food and drinks that meets the changing needs of customers.
  • Provide local volunteering opportunities that help keep people active & healthy.
  • Are an active part of the community in which we operate.

Cafés & tea bars

Our cafés and tea bars have been serving the nation since 1938 and have since become a staple addition to health care settings across Britain. They offer a welcoming, high-quality café environment whilst serving a fantastic range of hot and cold meals, freshly baked pastries, cakes, great coffee and of course tea!

Our cafés and tea bars focus on the grab and go customer: ideal for settings that are busy and require quick and friendly service.

Key features

  • High-quality café solutions with healthy, nutritious options.
  • Demonstrable social value and outstanding volunteering opportunities.
  • Bespoke offers to support NHS staff and customer loyalty scheme.
  • Caring and compassionate customer service.

Shops

For over 80 years our popular shops have been providing a convenient, friendly and efficient service in many different environments across Britain.

Our shops provide a modern shopping experience, taking the best elements from a traditional convenience shop, and enhancing them with the addition of products to meet the needs of customers in the hospital or other setting, ensuring they can get everything they need, at a competitive price.

Key features

  • Efficient, caring and exemplary customer service.
  • Competitive convenience shop solutions with high standards.
  • Community engagement and outstanding volunteering opportunities.
  • Options for added services such as cash machines, vending & National Lottery.

Pop-ups and trolleys

Our pop-up retail solutions and trolley services offer an easy to set up and quick to mobilise retail solution to bring welcome refreshments and essential items to customers and staff in various settings.
We have three core mobile retail solutions:

  • Mobile trolley service
  • Pop-up shop
  • Coffee/café carts

Key features

  • Fantastic range of food, drink and essential items, as well as a comfortable and friendly ear to patients & customers.
  • Fully flexible for the requirements of the setting with ability to move to key locations.
  • Ideal for high footfall locations with lack of space for traditional retail outlets.

Next steps

Since 1938, Royal Voluntary Service has been proudly refreshing the nation and working across our communities to support the needs of the day. Since its inception, a constant has been the support of our NHS, never more prominent than our delivery of the NHS Volunteer Responders scheme during the pandemic. Through our fantastic staff and volunteers, our high-quality retail offer is delivered with heart, by the community for the community. We would be delighted to have the opportunity to demonstrate the difference we can make for you.

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We're always happy to share our experience and discuss we could work together. Contact us to talk about your retail opportunities.

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