CASE STUDY
MDL MARINAS
Bringing Street Food to the UK’s Largest Inland Marina
How Indi Local built and managed a summer-long, street food rotation for MDL’s picturesque marina on the Thames with full vendor vetting, built-in ordering and commission collection, and marketing content that carried the activation beyond the water’s edge.
15 weeks
Every Fri-Sun, July to October
12 vendors
Rotating mix of world-cuisines
3.3x
Growth in new visitor awareness
£54k+
Injected into the local economy
OUR CLIENT
A new kind of destination on the water
Penton Hook in Chertsey, Surrey, is an MDL Marinas landmark site with an impressive 575 berths. This year it opened its riverside peninsula to the public for the first time with a weekend street food activation, running every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from July through October, built around a rotating lineup of one street food vendor, one dessert vendor and a bar.
THE CHALLENGE
Quality, without adding to MDL’s workload
MDL wanted a quality food and drink experience for berth holders and passing boat traffic, championing independent local suppliers over a generic catering contract. They needed an experienced, trusted partner to source and manage that rotating vendor lineup without adding to their own team’s workload.
WHAT WE DID
One partner, five moving parts.
Curated vendor rotation
We sourced and managed the full summer lineup; around a dozen independent traders across Caribbean, Thai, Italian, Turkish, Persian and Korean food, with every vendor fully vetted and compliance-checked before getting site access.
On-board POS, preorders and QR table ordering
Every vendor traded through a POS system as part of the ordering setup, so every sale was tracked and commission collected on MDL’s behalf - turning the activation into a direct revenue stream and data gathering exercise for the marina. Customers could see upcoming vendors and preorder from digital menus allowing both venue and vendors to plan better and reduce wastage.
Promotion to our foodie audience
With an existing foodie community, we promoted the activation across Indi Local’s own social channels - reaching a separate, engaged audience of foodies actively looking for unique street food experiences.
Put Penton Hook on the map
A dedicated profile on the Indi Local street food discovery app meant the marina street food popups "Fresh off the Hook", were added as pins on the map, putting it in front of foodies already actively looking for unique street food experiences like this.
Content creation
An additional content package provided a full day of on-site filming across the vendors, the bar and the marina manager, including footage from a boat, to bring visibility beyond the marina itself. A full series of videos optimised for social media promoted the activation to new audiences.
THE OUTCOME
A genuine point of difference for MDL
The activation gave Penton Hook a genuine point of difference for berth holders and passing boat traffic, helped along by that social media visibility reaching the right audience. MDL reported a marked increase in visiting boats choosing to stop specifically for the food and drink offering.
"The launch and performance of the 'Fresh Off The Hook' concept through to the end of the season have been extremely positive... for berth holders and visitors it has been received very well across the board.
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I appreciate the effort that you have invested throughout the season. Establishing a new concept invariably presents challenges, but the willingness from all parties to work collaboratively has undoubtedly contributed to its success.
Ben Moran · Marina Manager, MDL Penton Hook Marina
“The primary objective for the marina was to provide berth holders with a quality food and beverage offering throughout the summer season, whilst also creating an additional attraction to encourage visiting boat traffic… we have seen a notable increase in visiting boats, with many customers choosing to visit the marina specifically to experience the Fresh Off The Hook offering.”