With less than a week now until Christmas 2024 its that time again to reflect on the year that was and the year to come.
From the young waiter who started a catering company out the back of a motel in Hamilton in 1999, I could not have possible imagined that some 25 years later we would still be in business, let alone servicing the events that we have this year – it still fills me with gratitude and awe.
Of course this is not the work of just one or a few people it is our entire team. We are the sum of our people, their experiences and of course their shared passion. Having said that, there is of course Ammie, who 10 years in is still the backbone of WD and manages to keep us all in line and focused on delivering the best we can.
This year has been full of celebration, innovation and events… lots and lots of events. There’s been too many to mention individually so here’s our recap:
We travelled again this year for the triennial Beef Week taking on wrangling 10 celebrity chefs in one venue and then delivering 9 events for 700 people each in another. Rockhampton is starting to feel like our second home and to think the next Beef is only 2 years away now, we’re already looking forward to heading back north. Speaking of travel, we had the absolute pleasure again this year of travelling to Winton to work alongside Opera Queensland to deliver the Festival of Outback Opera for the second time.
As we celebrated (well we didn’t get the chance to throw a party… yet) 25 years, the mighty Fort (the Fortitude Music Hall) turned 5 and we extended our contract with Brisbane’s Iconic Arts and events venue, The Brisbane Powerhouse for another 3 years. We worked alongside CSIRO late this year to deliver their biennial AgCatalyst conference, highlighting the latest in agrifood innovation and science. The conference allowed us the opportunity to measure the waste produced and gain greater insights into the environmental impact and ways we can reduce it for catering offsite events.
We are, at our essence, a food business. This year, our fearless Executive Chef Peter (and master BBQ smoker) smoked close to a tonne of brisket, 6000 beef cheeks and more than a couple of chickens. Our greater kitchen team made 130,000 plus canapés, 3,318 mini cheeseburgers & loads of quarter cut homestyle sandwiches.
We celebrated the new additions the WD family. Kaitlyn after having baby no. 2 (Harper) last year has come back and is now at the helm of the business as General Manager (clearly the queen of multitasking), Erica welcomed her first (Bowie) and in the new year she will be moving into our Business Development role. Ben our fearless and more notably tireless (I don’t think he ever sleeps) has welcomed baby no. 2 (Prue). Rebecca Horsburgh has come back to the business after a number of years to join our events team. We have also welcomed back Emily Taylor as our marketing Manager, Emily worked for us for nearly 5 years while she completed her degree and then left to follow her career and we have lured her back.
Our little sister Express Catering launched a new website in a world of last minute catering requests and have seen it grow to deliver nearly 1000 deliveries this year.
Icepac our dry ice business moved to new premises behind Wine & Dine’m to build an ice sculpting studio. Allowing us to bring new creativity to the events and wedding spaces, with our logos ice cubes recently featured in Vogue. Keep an eye out for a little collab we did for Christmas with a certain music label.(thats all I can say for now).
We helped celebrate new electric cars, 100 years of Graincorp, our 3rd year of the Queens Plaza Soiree, Oktoberfest in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, plenty of birthdays and celebrations.
Weddings, there were more than a few this year, 75 in fact. One of the highlights was working with one of our favourites, the incomparable Alysia Bridger to deliver Billie and Angus’ wedding in a stunning celebration in Brookfield.
Speaking of weddings, well at least engagements Ammie said yes! (and before anyone asks, no we haven’t set a date).
So as we prepare to bid farewell to 2024, we look forward to 2025 with some pretty big news and exciting projects set to be announced. There may even be a big celebration that you’ll definitely want to be part of.
So from Ammie, Kaitlyn and I and of course the amazing team that that is Wine & Dine’m, we wish you a happy and safe festive season and we’ll see you next year across the table or across the room.
Cheers,
Craig Fox
