Construction companies typically face two catering challenges, and PKL provides solutions for both.
When you're refurbishing, extending or rebuilding a site that already serves meals, such as a school, a hospital, a prison or a care home, the existing kitchen is often taken out of service while construction works are carried out, yet meals still have to be served every day. We supply fully equipped temporary kitchen facilities that keep catering operations running without interruption.
For new-build developments and remote construction sites, the challenge is different. Workforce catering is needed long before a permanent dining facility is available. PKL provides temporary catering facilities designed to support site teams from day one, ensuring access to high-quality food services throughout the build.
As one of the UK's leading suppliers of temporary catering facilities, we've supported construction companies across the UK for nearly 40 years.
Our Solutions
Designed for construction environments, our temporary kitchens and catering facilities help contractors maintain essential food services, support workforce wellbeing and keep projects moving without disruption.
One Partner from Design to Handover
Keeping a Site’s Catering Running During the Works
When you’re refurbishing, extending or replacing a live kitchen, you’re disrupting a service that can’t simply stop. Schools still need to serve lunches, hospitals still have to feed patients and staff, care homes rely on uninterrupted meals for residents, and prisons have to feed everyone inside every day. Any interruption quickly becomes a critical operational issue, making continuity planning an essential part of the project from the outset.
We remove that risk by providing fully equipped commercial kitchen facilities that maintain food production while construction works take place.
Working alongside your team, we undertake a detailed site survey, assess operational requirements and design a solution tailored to the menu, production volumes and number of people being served. The installation is positioned in the most practical location for the project, whether that’s a car park, service yard, hard-standing area or a purpose-built base where space is limited.
Built to commercial catering standards, the kitchen provides the production areas, refrigeration and cold storage capacity required to deliver a full menu throughout the project. Catering teams can continue operating with minimal disruption, while the installation can be expanded, relocated or reconfigured as construction phases progress. Once the permanent kitchen is ready for use, PKL removes the installation and reinstates the area, ensuring a smooth handover and seamless return to normal operations.
Whatever the cause, the priority is the same: hot, safe, familiar meals served to schedule, with as little disruption to residents and staff as possible.
Feeding the Workforce on Site
On a new-build or a busy construction site, the challenge is your own workforce. People working long shifts need proper hot meals and somewhere comfortable to eat close to where they work, often long before any permanent facilities are in place. We provide the canteens, kitchens and welfare catering to make that happen, whether you need a single unit on a live build or a complete catering operation on a site with no infrastructure at all.
We match the facility to the headcount, the location and the length of the job. A single canteen unit suits a smaller site; larger workforces are fed from units linked into a bigger kitchen and dining complex. For high-volume feeding we provide large-scale kitchens and the full range of catering equipment, plus the refrigeration and cold storage a working menu depends on. For remote and overseas projects we supply camp kitchens and dining facilities designed to run where mains services are limited.
When a national construction company needed to keep its workforce fed and safe during the first lockdown, it built a temporary workers’ village but had no catering on site. We supplied a Field Kitchen within a week of the first call, and it kept the team working safely right through the summer. As the site manager put it: “They gave us exactly what we needed, quickly, efficiently, and in a COVID-secure manner that gave us huge confidence.”
Why Construction Companies Choose PKL
With more than 35 years supplying temporary catering facilities and over 15,000 facilities delivered, we are used to working carefully around sensitive, occupied sites. The service is fully managed: site survey, kitchen design, equipment preparation and testing, delivery and installation, support throughout, then removal and reinstatement at the end.
Site
Survey
Kitchen
Design
Equipment Preparation
and Testing
Delivery and
Installation
Dedicated
Service Team
A Complete Kitchen Solution
Catering Facilities Built for a Construction Site
Construction projects demand careful coordination, and PKL works closely with contractors to ensure temporary catering facilities are fully integrated into site logistics from the outset. Our team assesses site constraints during the planning stage, designing a solution that aligns with access requirements, programme timelines and operational needs.
Facilities are delivered by lorry and positioned using crane lifts where site access, space restrictions or ground conditions require it. While level hard-standing is preferred, our units feature integrated levelling systems to accommodate more challenging environments. Most installations require connections to power, water and waste services, but where these are not available, PKL can provide a complete standalone solution, including generators, water supply and waste management infrastructure.
Installation is carried out in accordance with site-specific traffic management plans and CDM requirements, with all installation personnel holding CSCS accreditation. Every unit is professionally prepared, quality checked, tested and inspected at our production and preparation facility before deployment, ensuring it arrives ready for immediate operation.
What is Included in Every Construction Kitchen Hire
Beyond compliance, we provide the scale, expertise and fully managed service required to support complex construction projects. Operating a fleet of more than 600 temporary kitchen units, we can supply anything from a standalone facility to a large, multi-unit catering complex. Every project is delivered on a turnkey basis, with PKL managing the entire process from site survey and CAD design through to delivery, installation, maintenance, technical support and removal. PKL holds the accreditations and certifications expected by construction procurement teams, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, as well as CHAS, SAFEcontractor, Constructionline, Gas Safe and CSCS accreditation.
FAQs
- 1
Can you keep a site’s catering running during a refurbishment?
Yes. It’s one of the two main things we do for construction companies. When your works take a client’s kitchen offline, we install a temporary commercial kitchen alongside the build so the client keeps producing and serving meals, then remove it once the permanent kitchen is back in use.
- 2
What’s included in a PKL construction site kitchen?
A full working kitchen, specified to the number of people you’re feeding: production and preparation space, commercial cooking and refrigeration, cold storage and a servery, with dining and washing-up space where you need it. We design it around your menu and volumes, and supply the catering equipment to match.
- 3
Can you cater on a site with no power, water or waste?
Yes. Where the site has no mains services, we can arrange generators, a water supply and waste provision so the kitchen and canteen still run.
- 4
Can the facility grow as our workforce grows?
Yes. The units link together, so a single canteen can be expanded into a larger kitchen and dining complex as headcount rises, then reduced as the project nears completion.
- 5
Can you cater night shifts and extended hours?
Yes. We specify the facility to your shift pattern, so it can serve hot food around the clock, and we size the servery for the peak rather than the average.
- 6
Is there a minimum hire period?
No. The facility stays for as long as your programme runs.
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