Cardiff-based catering company PIKKLE has been appointed as the sole catering provider for the British Ports Association Annual Conference this October, as organisers prepare for the biggest edition of the event to date.
The company, which specialises in delivering locally rooted catering for large, multi-day events, will return to the conference following its award-winning delivery of the 2024 event in Portsmouth.
This year’s conference will take place at Cruise Terminal One at the Port of Dover on 21 and 22 October 2026, with a wider programme of networking and social events taking place across three days.
Organisers are increasing capacity to 450 delegates, up from 350 at last year’s sold-out event.
The appointment represents another major event outside Wales for the Cardiff business as it looks to grow its large-scale conference and events work across the UK.
As part of the event’s focus on sustainability and local impact, PIKKLE will work with events and communications agency Freshwater, which is organising the conference, to build the catering offer around Dover and Kent’s independent food scene.
Four regional suppliers have been selected, including Gilda Bakery near Canterbury for breakfast pastries, Whitstable-based Lost Sheep Coffee, Cow Shed on the Hoof serving American-style barbecue for lunch, and Biddenden Vineyards supplying Kent wine.
Founded by Hamish Watkins and Louis Phillips in early 2023, PIKKLE prides itself on its ‘unconventional catering’ model, challenging how large conferences think about catering by moving away from standardised food offers towards menus that reflect the location, audience and purpose of an event.
Every project starts with understanding the brief, location, audience and event objectives. PIKKLE then researches the surrounding food scene, identifies independent producers, develops a bespoke menu and manages the suppliers and catering delivery through one experienced event team.
The repeat appointment builds on PIKKLE’s delivery of the association’s 2024 conference in Portsmouth, which marked the company’s first large-scale event outside Cardiff and demonstrated its ability to take its catering model beyond South Wales.
More than 300 delegates attended the two-day event at Portsmouth International Port Terminal, with PIKKLE serving nearly 800 dishes, pastries and desserts and around 1,500 coffees.
The menu brought together independent Portsmouth food businesses to create an experience rooted in the host city.
The following year, PIKKLE was named Catering Supplier of the Year at the International Confex Event Supplier Awards 2025, with its work at BPA 2024 forming the centrepiece of its winning submission.
Judges praised PIKKLE’s “very colourful and refreshing DNA…[which] helps [them] stand out from the crowd” and “impressive 90% client retention rate, flexibility and choice [and] solid local presence”.
Hamish Watkins, co-founder of PIKKLE, said: “We’re really proud to be returning to the BPA conference after what we achieved together in Portsmouth.
“Conference catering can too often become something to tick off the list, but we think that’s a missed opportunity. Large, multi-day conferences are exactly where our model comes into its own. They require serious planning, consistency and the capability to deliver at scale, but that doesn’t mean the food should feel generic or disconnected from where the event is taking place.
“Freshwater and the BPA put a lot of trust in us in 2024 and the fact they’ve asked us back for Dover means a great deal. We work closely with event teams from the early planning stages, giving them one catering partner taking responsibility for the detail while we bring in some of the best independent food businesses from the host area.
“BPA 2024 showed that our model can travel, and our ambition now is to work with more event teams and agencies to bring that approach to major conferences and events across the UK.”
PIKKLE’s work extends beyond conferences. In October 2025, the company catered the VIP launch of Sephora’s first store in Wales in Cardiff, creating a drinks and canapé service that celebrated the city’s food scene through independent food traders.
Over the last 12 months, PIKKLE has catered more than 400 events, primarily across South Wales but also in Bristol, the South West, London and other parts of southern England.
These range from networking events and business lunches to workplace celebrations, brand activations and larger corporate functions.
Aled Edwards, director at Cardiff-based Freshwater, said: “We’ve worked with PIKKLE on numerous occasions over the past few years, from corporate events in Cardiff through to the BPA conference in Portsmouth, so we know the team well and what they can deliver.
“They made a real impact on the delegate experience in Portsmouth, so bringing them back for Dover was an easy decision. With BPA 2026 set to be the biggest conference yet, we need catering partners that can combine creativity with the operational capability to deliver at scale.
“PIKKLE also works as a genuine extension of the event team. They understand the brief, take responsibility for the catering operation and give us one experienced point of contact, while creating a food offer that feels connected to the destination.”
