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Jinnie drove into the TT SuperBurger car park and into her designated parking space. On the way to the office, she thought about getting a coffee and one of the chocolate chip cookies from the Artisan outlet, but decided that she would be brought a mug immediately she was behind her desk. So, skipped the short queue and took the lift up to the TT SuperBurger Group floor. The lift stopped several times, and she recognised several people who got off at the Trattoria Trevi floor and returned their ‘Good mornings’.
As usual, the coffee arrived the moment she sat down behind her desk. Jinnie had always had her computer on her desk, at one end, angled towards her so as not to be in her sight line when people were the other side of the desk. But just before she went to Florida, the board had decided to replace the director’s furniture, and Belinda had suggested that she have a desk with a return. She could then have her computer monitor and keyboard on the return and a completely clear desk, and with a swivel chair could quickly switch from one to the other.
Jinnie ran her hand over the surface of her brand new cherrywood desk and thought how rather smart it was. Under the return was a matching three-drawer lockable pedestal, and teeing off the front of the desk was a six-person meeting table for casual meetings. Her new leather executive chair was wonderfully comfortable, and the six matching meeting chairs looked equally comfortable. At the far end of the room was a matching bookcase with lockable glass doors, with cupboards underneath, and either side were matching full-height double cupboards.
Jinnie opened the cupboards and discovered that one was a cupboard with shelves at the top and pull-out hanging files in the bottom third. The other was half shelves and half a wardrobe. Standing in front of the bookcase and looking back down the office, she rather liked what she saw. From the new grey carpet to the tasteful picture on the wall, it had been designed by someone with good taste who knew just what she liked.
As she admired the refurbished office, Brian stuck his head around the door and said, ‘Wow, I thought my office was nice, but this is much better.’ ‘Surely Belinda told you what she had planned,’ said Jinnie. ‘Not at all,’ replied Brian. ‘It was all Andrew’s people’s design, Belinda’s team just supplied and fitted what they specified. She tells me she was happy we were away on business, as it gave her a bit more time to get the job done. I understand the furniture is all off the shelf, but you wouldn’t think so.’
Jinnie said, ‘Have you got a few minutes for a quick chat.’ Brian took a seat in one of the visitor chairs, and Jinnie said, ‘I have been thinking, do you think we should try to raise the group’s public profile? I read a report in the FT that called the Group “Secretive”.’ ‘I read that,’ said Brian. ‘It was rather a decent article, and you came out well.’ ‘I agree,’ said Jinnie, ‘but the FT doesn’t have a huge circulation outside the City and FDs like you. It was good free publicity, but did it get to the majority of the public or just a tiny minority? We have a publicity department, and it is doing a good job considering the constraints we put on it.’
‘I would like to see our name in front of the public a bit more. We put out press releases when we open a new restaurant or a new business, but we hardly get much publicity beyond the town where the new restaurant or sandwich shop is based. The general public don’t know that Aunty JoJo’s is in the same group as SuperBurger, or that we own significant numbers of restaurants in the Caribbean, Florida and Canada. I bet virtually no one knows we have vineyards, make our own wine, or that we are now into ice cream, have an events business, or a catering business.’
‘I’m inclined to agree,’ said Brian, ‘but how do you propose to get around the problem.’ ‘I’m not certain,’ said Jinnie, ‘but how about we do a few things, like feed a few stories into the press. It’s our annual free meal for retirement homes shortly, let’s feed the story to the media and tell them it’s across the group, anyone who is over retirement age, and can prove it with, say, their passport, bus pass or driving licence, can get a free meal in one of the group outlets, a sandwich and coffee in Artisan Sandwich’s, two pieces of chicken and fries in Aunty JoJo’s, a BigUn and fries in SuperBurger. On the day we could print a voucher in all the papers.’
‘But it would cost a fortune,’ said Brian. ‘Offset the free publicity,’ said Jinnie. ‘But I think if you look back at our previous events our bookings at Trattoria Trevi’s have gone up in the following weeks.’ ‘I seem to remember some stats from last year,’ said Brian, ‘and I think you are right. I’ll check out the numbers. If they stand up do you intend to talk to the Board about this.’ ‘Of course,’ replied Jinnie. ‘It’s a fair initial outlay for the Group, but I might need to convince the board that the free publicity and the goodwill we will get is worth it.’
***
Group Communications was at the far side of the building, with less desirable north-facing offices. Jinnie didn’t visit very often, but she was pleased to see the executive offices and furniture were exactly the same, and she was greeted by several faces she recognised, even if she hardly knew any names. Caroline was on the phone and waved Jinnie into her office and gestured to a visitor chair.
Caroline quickly finished the call, put the mobile back in its charger and said, ‘Hello Jinnie, how did the trip go?’ ‘Excellent, thank you,’ replied Jinnie. ‘The board agreed to all the proposals. But on the train home from Gatwick, I read the article you sent me from the Telegraph, and it got me thinking. I have an idea I’d like to run past you and maybe present to the board.’
Jinnie explained her thoughts on the need for more Group visibility, pointing out that some of the company’s individual divisions were reasonably well known, but she was sure most people didn’t associate them as members of the TT SuperBurger Group. In fact, she was certain that very few members of the public realised they were an international company. She then talked about her idea of expanding the free meals for retirement homes, to free meals for pensioners at the group takeaways.
Caroline nodded and said, ‘I like the idea. I can work with that and get the story in the media. The press will love the idea of printing vouchers. It will mean people buying more papers. I might be able to talk them into a cheap advertising rate. I say go for it if Brian’s costing looks good. But I have something else to suggest. I have been working on a presentation to you for a while and it is almost ready, so I might as well just run it past you now. I don’t have a fancy presentation ready, but I have the content worked out.’
‘OK,’ said Jinnie. ‘Give it a go.’ ‘Well, it sort of ties in with what you have been talking about,’ said Caroline. ‘It has also struck me that people don’t associate many of our divisions with the Group. I think the problem is we don’t have a consistent brand identity, as an advertising agency would say. What I think we need is a consistent brand identity throughout the group.’
‘Go on,’ said Jinnie. ‘You have my interest.’ ‘Well,’ said Caroline, ‘I have had an off-the-record chat with someone I know at an advertising agency, and we concluded that what we need is a simple company logo, and a consistent brand identity strap line on things. My friend suggested we add the line “A TT SuperBurger Group Company” everywhere with a stylised TT, maybe in a different colour, font, and size, with one T slightly raised and the second lowered, and both in italics. I would have had a mock-up ready for my presentation, but as I explained, you have got this a bit sooner than I intended.’
‘No problem,’ said Jinnie. ‘I think I can visualise what you are saying.’ ‘I would like this to be in a corporate font,’ continued Caroline. ‘I know that each company has their own letterhead and font, and I don’t think we need to change that, just as long as we are consistent within a business. I was thinking of Aunty JoJo’s, where are trading in what are separate divisions. I’m aware you have a style book to ensure branches in the Caribbean, UK, Canada, USA and Slovenia are similar, but do they use similar letterheads, fonts on menus, bills, orders and invoices. Perhaps we should add this to the style book. And in the bottom right it should have our strap line.’
‘OK,’ said Jinnie. ‘So far I like what you are saying, but what about signage.’ ‘I don’t see why we shouldn’t have it on the signage,’ said Caroline. ‘I can see the sign outside a SuperBurger branch with a small strap line, even on Trattoria Trevi menus. We put the strap line on everything from Wright Refurbishment vans to the containers that we put ice cream in, even our internet pages, in that way people get to know we are all part of the same group.’
‘I think that could work,’ said Jinnie. ‘Do you think we need to hire a branding company.’ ‘Why,’ replied Caroline. ‘They would only want to charge a fortune for doing what I have just suggested. We have a highly professional Design Group, just look at what they have done when they have had a chance. The SuperBurger relaunch. The Aunty JoJo’s style book. The Ennios Hotels. The Continental Hotel style. I think Andrew’s team will turn something as simple as a strap line and logo around in short time.’
‘That would keep the design costs down,’ said Jinnie, ‘but it’s the implementation costs that bother me.’ ‘Well, we can minimise a lot of them by only changing to new style documents when we have, say, new letterheads printed. I bet you that loads of things like invoices and orders are printed from SAP each time one is raised, so it’s only a matter of editing the form on the network. I reckon Nigel’s IT people can do that easily.’ ‘Right,’ said Jinnie. ‘Let’s get Andrew and Nigel up here now and see what they have to say.’
***
Nigel and Andrew had listened to Jinnie and Caroline explain the need for a corporate brand and something to firstly advertise the group and secondly to tie the group companies together. Then Caroline described her idea of a strap line, before Jinnie asked Nigel how difficult and expensive it would be to add such a thing to SAP. Nigel said, ‘As far as I’m concerned we could roll out a change tomorrow if we have a design for the strap line. We have a full list of all the documents that SAP prints, so that’s easy. It might take a little longer to change all the internet pages and the signature lines on emails and messages, but it’s all quite simple. The only thing I am not sure about are the drawing formats that Belinda and the other refurbishment contractors use, as she looks after that in house. Maybe Andrew knows the answer to that.’
Andrew looked up from the pad in front of him, where he was sketching the strap line with the stylised Ts as Caroline had described. He said, ‘Of course we need to settle on a font and a colour for the TT logo, but there are hundreds of free fonts to choose from. Personally, I would go for an Oxford Blue logo and then it won’t be terribly difficult when something is printed on a monochrome laser printer. Can I have a couple of days to try out a few fonts and see what I think works. Oh yes, the drawing sheets, I set up the original AutoCad drawing sheets for Wright Refurbishment and it was quite easy, I just followed the instruction manual. This is just adding a strap line, as long as we choose a font we can download from the internet I think it would be dead easy and a few hours’ work.’
***
At that Friday’s board meeting Jinnie had an item called ‘Corporate Identity’ included on the agenda and brought along Caroline to finally make the presentation she had intended. The small working party had chosen a font called Montserrat Bold with the TT logo in Navy Blue. Between them the working party, as Jinnie, Caroline, Nigel and Andrew had called themselves, had drawn up a specification, produced a number of example documents, and Andrew had produced a test drawing sheet. But it was the meeting agenda and the minutes from the previous meeting, both bore the strap line that Jinnie was particularly proud of. Both documents had the strap line at the bottom and the only person who noticed was Belinda, who whispered, ‘I like this,’ to Jinnie, who suspected that was because she had seen Andrew producing the example drawing sheet.
Jinnie was impressed with Caroline’s presentation to the board, it was clear and to the point and illustrated well with the examples. When Caroline had finished and was preparing to leave, Jinnie asked if there were any questions. Of course, Brian asked his normal question, ‘How much is this going to cost.’ Jinnie replied, ‘That’s impossible to answer. Let me explain, if you like what you have seen the answer is virtually nothing. For those documents we print ourselves the answer is nothing, we simply have to switch the files used by SAP or AutoCAD. For things on pre-printed items like letterheads and extension sheets then we carry on using what we have in stock until we need to reorder. For things like company vans we could think about a stick-on strap line or just leave as is and get a new wrap with the strap line when we get a new van.’
‘We could use the same approach for restaurants,’ continued Jinnie. ‘You saw the mock-up shopfront for SuperBurger with a strap line. Well, we could do what I talked about with the vans and apply a piece of sticky-back transparent film with the strap line on, or leave everything alone until it’s time to refurbish the outlet. When we change the menu in a restaurant we print with the strap line. The additional cost is probably so small as to be negligible, as is the cost of adding the line to every page on the various websites.’
Caroline answered a couple of questions on the font and why it was chosen before Alberto called an end to the discussion, and for a vote on whether to make the change. Jinnie knew that Nigel and Andrew would vote yes with her and believed Belinda was also a yes, but when a show of hands was called for there was a sea of yeses, one abstention and nobody voted no.
The meeting moved on to Jinnie’s next suggestion and Caroline left the meeting. She pitched the suggestion that they expand the annual free meal day to all their restaurants and takeaways. The first reaction was ‘this is going to be expensive’, but Jinnie knew Brian had been looking at the cost and benefits and had come down firmly on the benefit side. Brian told the meeting that he had been looking at the costs and every year since the programme had been introduced and it appeared that the additional customers secured immediately after the event had more than offset the cost and there was no reason to think that this expansion would be any different.
Jinnie said, ‘It’s not just about the cost, the event is looked forward to by the residents of the retirement homes as a highlight of their year. I would want to continue the programme even if it cost us money. When we introduced the event we had no idea it would bring us customers, it was simply a nice thing to do. We have been followed by a number of restaurant chains, and it has become an important day for retirement homes in the UK. Now we can make it an important day for all retirees in the country and with any luck we will get some good press, a lot of additional customers, and some brand recognition.’
‘I don’t think I have made it clear,’ continued Jinnie, ‘but I am proposing that we don’t just expand the programme in the UK, but we do it in every country we trade in. Let’s see if we can spread the event to Canada, the USA, and the Caribbean. I want to work with Caroline to brief the media not just in the UK but everywhere we trade, that way we can ensure we get the publicity and we might just get other chains joining in.’
Alberto raised his hand and said, ‘I’m convinced it’s worth trying. I vote we agree to try this programme internationally this year. If it is a failure we can go back to the retirement home events next year, we know that is appreciated and costs us next to nothing. Can we have a show of hands please on agreeing to expand the programme as detailed by Dame Jinnie.’ To Jinnie’s delight the vote was unanimous.
***
Jinnie headed straight to Caroline’s office to tell her the result of her pitch on an expanded ‘Retirement Meals Day’. She told Caroline that the board had agreed to expansion to the other divisions as they had discussed and had also agreed to overseas outlets joining in. Jinnie added, ‘You realise this is going to mean a lot of work for you and your group. We need to brief the media in what we are doing. This is all about getting free publicity, so we need to talk to as many people as possible, not only in this country but everywhere we operate.’
‘I don’t mind doing that,’ replied Caroline, ‘but are you going to brief all the divisional directors and managers or is that down to me as well.’ ‘No, I think I can handle that,’ said Jinnie, ‘but I’m on holiday for all the school holidays, that’s from the last week in July to the first week in September. So, I am only in the office next week, then I will only have limited contact for the first couple of weeks as we are on a Mediterranean cruise before going to our house in Bridgetown. I have full access to the company comms network from there so that bit’s easy. The only problem is that the big day is usually the 3rd Wednesday in September. That’s under three months away.’
Caroline said, ‘I took a chance and had one of my people create a group document style manual for all our companies. The only place we had a tiny problem was with the UK Events and Aunty JoJo’s in the Caribbean and Canada, as they are not wholly owned by the Group. To cut to the chase we have suggested they use “A TT SuperBurger Group Affiliate Company”.’ ‘I rather like that,’ said Jinnie. ‘Have you specified the typeface for letters and memos.’ ‘Absolutely,’ said Caroline. ‘Company name to have the TT logo and their name and address in the Montserrat Bold and all body text to be in Arial 12 point.’ ‘Yes,’ said Jinnie. ‘I think a standard approach is much more professional. Can you print off the manual, and we’ll send every company a copy and I’ll get Nigel to set up a download point on the network. He can also put the examples on a data stick to send out. Let’s make it easy for everyone.’
‘Now one thing I had forgotten to speak to you about, but the twins reminded me when I mentioned your name over dinner last night,’ said Jinnie. ‘I promised to invite you and your girls over for a swimming party and it had slipped my mind. How does Saturday morning fit in with your plans? The forecast is good, so I think we can have a big barbecue lunch, steak, chicken and lamb chops for the adults, hot dogs and burgers for the kids. Don’t forget Cathy, the kids would love to see her. And we can find something to do in the afternoon and have a big tea with sandwiches, jelly and cake for the kids.’ ‘Saturday is perfect,’ said Caroline.
***
On Saturday morning the twins were excited to see their friends and directly after breakfast rushed off into the front room to wait for their arrival. Jinnie walked into the front room and found the twins explaining to Larry that they were waiting for their friends to arrive and he would like them as they were nice. Jinnie chuckled and said, ‘Don’t forget Larry already knows Cathy from when she stood in for Izzy.’ ‘I’d forgotten that,’ said Millie. ‘Larry liked Cathy, he told us.’ ‘You’re rather early,’ said Jinnie. ‘I suggested they come at ten, and it’s only 20 to. You have got plenty of time to get your swimming cozies on, before they get here.’ ‘We’ve already got them on under our clothes,’ said Willie.
Jinnie was still chuckling when Paolo put his head round the door and asked, ‘Gas or charcoal?’ Jinnie was about to answer when the twins chorused, ‘Gas, you always burn things with charcoal.’ Jinnie laughed and said, ‘You’ve been told, gas it is.’ ‘I’m happy,’ said Paolo. ‘There is no messing about with getting the charcoal on early and getting the temperature right.’
Caroline’s company C5 turned in the gate and running to the front door the twins bellowed, ‘They’re here.’ Caroline and Cathy climbed out of the front seats into the bright sunshine and let Annabel and Alexandra out of the back. They carried matching small bags, which Jinnie guessed had their swimming stuff in. The two pairs of twins were chatting away by the time Jinnie, Paolo and Izzy arrived to say hello. Almost immediately Willie was anxious to go swimming and asked his mother where the girls could get changed. Jinnie suggested they were shown to the spare pink bedroom, and the four children quickly disappeared.
Caroline said, ‘Cathy told me you had a beautiful house, but it’s so much bigger than I expected, and you are lucky having a pool. It must be wonderful for the children on a day like today.’ Jinnie smiled before replying, ‘We don’t actually have our own pool. We have considered having one put in, but with Sir Nigel’s only next door, that we can’t use anytime, I haven’t really thought I could justify the expense. Now I hope you have both brought your costumes. I expect Cathy told you that Sir Nigel’s pool house has all modern conveniences, including changing rooms and showers. I expect Sir Nigel will join us, he usually does, and he always supplies hot chocolate after the swimming session on cold days. But as it’s such a perfect day I think today it will be coffee for the adults and squash or fruit juice for the kids.’
Jinnie promised to show Caroline the house when they got back from swimming and walked through the house into the kitchen, where Larry was curled in his basket. He opened one eye to see who dared to enter his kitchen and, seeing Jinnie leading, relaxed, only for his ears to prick up when he heard a familiar voice say, ‘Hello Larry, how are you my friend.’ Larry recognised Cathy and slowly got out of his basket, had a huge stretch, and walked over to her. She dropped to one knee and stroked him from his head to the base of his tail, just as he liked.
Larry meowed and rubbed himself against her leg. Cathy said, ‘This is my new boss Caroline, she likes cats and in a minute her twins Anna and Alex will be here, they are changing into their swimming costumes, we are all going swimming.’ She had only just finished speaking when Willie called, ‘Mummy, where are you?’ Jinnie replied, ‘We are all in the kitchen, waiting for you.’
The children all trooped into the kitchen, and Millie said, ‘This is our cat Larry, he talks to us. Larry, these are our friends Anna and Alex, they like cats better than dogs.’ The Harmon twins said ‘Hello’ to Larry and started to pet him. He decided that he liked them and sent a ‘Hello’ back to them. The girls looked at each other and then said to Willie and Millie, ‘He said “hello”.’ Willie said, ‘See, he likes you, he only talks to people he likes.’
Jinnie led everyone, except Paolo, down the garden and through the gate into Sir Nigel’s garden. She said to Caroline, ‘Paolo is not so keen on swimming, he is going to set up the barbecue and get some tables and chairs out of the shed.’ Larry led them all along the path to the pool house, before diving off through the cat flap into Sir Nigel’s kitchen. Caroline saw the pool house and said, ‘I remember seeing this on the TV when there was that attack. I didn’t realise there was a swimming pool inside.’
As they neared the pool, a pair of armed Hertfordshire Police officers came around the corner of the house and waved to the twins, who waved back. Millie said, ‘They are nice, they always say hello, not as nice as George though.’ ‘Who is George?’ asked Caroline. ‘He is my husband,’ answered Izzy. ‘He is on the Royal Protection team and is at Buckingham Palace today. Next week he is off to Balmoral for the summer.’ ‘Wow,’ said Anna. ‘Does he have a gun like those policemen.’ ‘Yes,’ replied Izzy. ‘He has a gun safe in our flat, but he wears plain clothes these days. He must wear a suit when he is protecting the King and Queen so that he is not obvious.’ ‘He has loads of suits,’ said Willie, ‘all different colour and styles.’ ‘That’s so he isn’t recognised by his suit, unlike the Secret Service in the United States,’ said Izzy.
***
As predicted, Sir Nigel joined them in the warm water of the indoor pool, and everyone had a fantastic time, splashing each other, swimming lengths, jumping on inflatables (the crocodile was the favourite) and playing piggy in the middle with a big plastic football. Back in their clothes they all traipsed into Nigel’s kitchen, where there was coffee and juice and a sleepy Larry. Millie wanted the girls to see Uncle Nigel’s globe, so he led them into his library, switched on the globe and showed them Barbados and how far away it was. The girls were impressed and asked where Kure was, as ‘Daddy is there’.
Sir Nigel spun the globe to Japan and said, ‘What is your Daddy doing in Japan?’ Alex explained, ‘Daddy is the Captain of Prince George, the aircraft carrier.’ It was Sir Nigel’s turn to say, ‘Wow.’ Turning to Jinnie he said, ‘You kept that quiet.’ ‘It wasn’t on purpose,’ replied Jinnie. ‘It just never came up. I’m just a little surprised that you didn’t hear how Caroline and I first met, we didn’t exactly keep it secret. But we didn’t exactly advertise it.’
‘Uncle’ Nigel was invited to the barbecue and said something about always having a steak at the pub on a Saturday lunchtime. Willie told him, ‘We have loads of steak, Daddy is cooking on the barbecue, there are chips and jacket potatoes, Issy has made loads of salad and there is chicken and lamb chops and hot dogs and burgers. There are cream cakes and fruit salad for dessert. It is lush.’ Nigel looked at Jinnie and said, ‘How can I refuse.’
The cold food was laid out on a trestle table on the patio under an awning. Paolo was tending the huge gas barbecue in a chef’s apron. While the others had been in the pool, he had been cooking the meat, and some of it was ready, keeping warm in covered trays over spirit burners borrowed from Trattoria Trevi. Millie and Willie led the girls along the table and found the hot dogs, burgers and piles of chips. With plates piled high, the four children found a table in the shade and tucked in, and watched as Izzy came out of the kitchen with a plate piled high with jacket potatoes, and Mummy brought out two butter dishes.
Paolo found Sir Nigel a huge bone-in rib-eye steak, to which he added chips and salad. He joined a table with Jinnie and Caroline, cut a piece off his steak and said, ‘My, this is good, where on earth do you find steak this good.’ ‘The butcher at the bottom of Barnet Hill,’ replied Jinnie. ‘You know, in the parade opposite the cinema. He’s not cheap, but you can rely on him for good meat, it is all properly aged.’
Caroline said, ‘I think I know the butcher you mean. When Tim is home next month, we have the Admiral and his coming to dinner, I think I will pop down for the meat. I haven’t even thought about a menu yet, but these lamb cutlets are fabulous. Perhaps I could do rack of lamb.’ ‘Good idea,’ said Sir Nigel, ‘who doesn’t like a rack of lamb, especially with lashings of mint sauce.’ ‘I’ve been thinking,’ said Caroline, ‘how about I invite you, Paolo and Sir Nigel. The Admiral can only be impressed sitting next to the country’s top restaurateur and an ex-prime minister.’
‘I’d love to be invited,’ said Sir Nigel. ‘Just let me know when you have sorted a date. I have an excellent Pinot Noir in my cellar that would go perfectly with a rack of lamb. I’ll bring half a dozen bottles into the office on Monday, then you can take them home and let them rest before the dinner party.’ ‘If the party is in August,’ said Jinnie, ‘then I’m afraid Paolo and I will, regretfully, have to decline. We will be in Barbados until the first week of September.’ ‘Oh, that’s not a problem,’ said Caroline. ‘When I said Tim is home next month, it’s not until near the end, so the dinner party can be towards the end of September. Admiral Dobiecki will just have to wait for his lamb.’
Jinnie said, ‘Did you say Admiral Dobiecki, because I knew a Commander Dobiecki. But he sailed a desk in the Admiralty, before that he was a nuclear submarine captain.’ ‘Then it is the same person,’ replied Caroline. ‘Tim told me he is a recent promotion to Rear Admiral and is considered a highflyer. Tim says he wouldn’t be surprised if he made full Admiral, even Admiral of the Fleet. Tim would love to get on his staff when his sea days are over, there are not many positions to move to once you have commanded an aircraft carrier.’
In Chapter 15 – Cruising again
© WorthingGooner 2026
