At 4pm on July 18, just as the orders were being collated for a busy July weekend, staff at Redbridge Caterfresh in Manchester were evacuated off the site due to a potentially explosive situation caused by council workers on the market.

Staff were not allowed back on to the site until 6pm on Friday July 19 and all vehicles were impounded. Due to the evacuation, Caterfresh staff were left with no copies of orders, no produce and no vehicles.

The business quickly reacted and implemented the company crisis management plan (a plan that we all hope we never have to use!).

Staff worked through the night, other depots around the country jumped to support the situation, customers re-faxed their orders to the telesales team, which had driven down to Birmingham and worked till 3 am in the morning. By 10am the next morning most deliveries had been completed and Caterfresh had managed to achieve the impossible in the face of crisis.

Dave Burns, Caterfresh's Commercial Director said: 'This achievement is all down to teamwork. The staff at Caterfresh and at our other depots were absolutely fantastic and everyone worked so hard to meet our deliveries in the face of diversity - I want to say a big thank you to everyone involved - it's a stunning example of teamwork and customer focus.'