SSP

As the largest food and beverage provider in Australian travel locations, SSP is delivering a world-class experience to airport patrons in major cities and regional locations. With a broad portfolio of brands across different food types, SSP operates airport-based outlets such as bars, cafes, burger joints, sushi restaurants, and Vietnamese eateries.

SSP’s mission is to be the best part of their customer’s journey. To live up to that promise, they knew they had to prioritize safety and training compliance at every site. They were looking for a digital solution that could streamline food safety compliance and simplify and standardize inspections and training across every SSP site. 

With expansion on the menu in 2024, SSP increased its number of sites from 34 to over 100 across Australia and New Zealand. They needed a tool that could match their growth and propel their quality assurance from good to great. 

As the newly appointed National Safety Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Phil Theuma-Whichello is passionate about digitizing workplace operations to enhance customer experiences. He was searching for the final ingredient, so he turned to SafetyCulture.

Rapid growth and new challenges

At the airport, no two days are the same. A day in the life of an SSP team member can change drastically based on weather delays, peak travel seasons, and other unforeseeable events. SSP workers, who handle everything from receiving food to cooking, prep, and serving customers, are on their toes 24/7. And for a company serving everyone from families going on their first vacation to seasoned business travelers, food safety is everything. 

With the company’s footprint tripling, SSP Australia and New Zealand required a system to support their expanding needs and they found that SafetyCulture’s Issues feature provided the tools needed to support their ambitious growth plans. Phil had used SafetyCulture at a previous job and pitched the idea to Kevin, SSP’s National Operations Director. They liked SafetyCulture because it gave more control over compliance and food safety auditing and a whole new level of visibility and data. The decision was easy, and SSP began the rollout. 

Fast-tracking roll out

With over 60 more sites on their radar, SSP wanted to fast-track rollout in November 2023. Food safety is top priority for Phil and the SSP team. So they started by digitizing where possible, such as open and close Checklists, as well as incident reporting and cashflow management through Issues. He quickly saw that the SafetyCulture platform could do everything he needed, and more.

They saw the opportunity to use Inspections for restaurant cleanliness and to ensure sound and lighting levels were comfortable. Phil trial-tested and launched airport by airport across Sydney, Perth, Darwin, Alice Springs, Brisbane, Melbourne and Hobart. 

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Using a traffic light system, Phil and his team could identify compliance downfalls and act quickly. The Frontline Operations Team liked being able to visualize their progress, which increased their compliance rates from 60% to nearly 100% across every location.

“That’s the power of SafetyCulture,” said Phil. “We can change our safety culture through SafetyCulture. We’ve experienced firsthand what happens when we hone in on the quality of our inspections.”

Consistency in a dynamic business

Now that SSP has easy-to-visualize data on Inspection completion rates and asset management, Phil and the frontline teams can pivot on their learnings and make easy wins. 

As they grow, using SafetyCulture means SSP can demonstrate a robust safety system to local councils and state governing bodies, further cementing competitiveness in the market and building strong business relationships.

Phil says using SafetyCulture has allowed them to go from completing governance to having greater visibility over their efforts and the ability to optimize the experience for every traveller. “It’s much easier to encourage teams to think bigger once they’re invested in the improvement journey,” he says.

As a public company, SSP must have an ROI for everything and has seen a positive response from its stakeholders. Compliance expenses are being avoided, and safety visits have become shorter and shorter.

Looking ahead, SSP has expanded SafetyCulture to its sites across New Zealand and Asia. While some locations are more established in their processes, they are increasingly eager to jump on board as they see how the SafetyCulture platform is making for a better way of working. 

“In this dynamic business, SafetyCulture is one of our constants,” said Phil. “We are busy focusing on everything else, but can quickly and easily get a glance at how the business is doing with compliance, completion rates, asset management and a whole host of other data. We couldn’t be more grateful to have SafetyCulture enabling that for us.”