SS Great Britain – Visitor Catering Management Options Appraisal

The SS Great Britain has been restored to recreate life on the world’s first great luxury ocean liner. Visitors can also explore the historic dockyard; step back in time at the Dockyard Museum; head beneath the glass sea into the dry dock; as well as visit the Being Brunel Museum – to discover Brunel’s achievements.

Visitor catering facilities at Brunel’s SS Great Britain include the Dockyard Café as well as the Harbourside Café which is also open to the public.

The SS Great Britain Trust is the charity that runs Brunel’s SS Great Britain and Brunel Institute, including caring for the 70,000 objects and artefacts in the two museums and archives.

“The SS Great Britain Trust has ambitious plans to protect and enhance Bristol’s unique harbour heritage and ecology while transforming the Albion Dockyard with a world-class maritime attraction inside a thriving working shipyard”. The centrepiece for the Albion Dockyard Development Project will be the recreation of a full-size version of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s first ship, the paddle steamer Great Western. The project is supported with investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Bristol City Council. The Albion Dockyard Development Project will include changes and expansion to the catering and events operations at the attraction, including the development of a new visitor café/ restaurant to include both internal and external seating. Visitor numbers are projected to increase to 345,000 – 375,000 per year.

Our catering consultancy advice and support to SS Great Britain Trust included developing a detailed analysis of the operational and financial performance of visitor catering and public cafes as well as that for conference and events hospitality. Following this we reviewed the potential for different management models including developing detailed financial models for each management model.