Introduction

For festival organisers like APL Event, operational efficiency is paramount. As one of the UK’s leading event management companies, working with prestigious brands such as Creamfields and T in the Park, APL Event is no stranger to logistical challenges. Among their most complex and time-consuming issues was managing staff, contractor, and supplier meal distribution during large-scale events.

In this case study, we’ll explore how nocodecreative.io partnered with APL Event to transform their outdated meal ticketing process into a streamlined, fully digital workflow using the custom-built SaaS platform, ScranQR. This solution not only modernised operations but also reduced waste, enhanced sustainability tracking, and unlocked valuable business intelligence to drive future decisions.

Understanding the Client and Their Needs

Industry: Event Management

Client: APL Event, a market leader in managing high-profile festivals and live events across the UK.

At every festival, ensuring meals for staff, contractors, and suppliers is a critical part of operations. Prior to ScranQR, APL Event relied on manual processes for meal management, which created inefficiencies, errors, and bottlenecks.

Challenges

  • Time-Consuming Processes: Meal orders were collected manually, paper meal tickets were physically distributed, and meal usage was tracking was a challenge, often resulting in inaccurate or incomplete data.
  • Resource-Intensive: The entire system required dedicated staff to oversee, especially during peak event times, drawing attention away from other critical areas of event management.
  • Lack of Accountability: Without accurate tracking, there was no way to verify meal allocations or ensure meals were used appropriately.
  • Sustainability Tracking: APL Event found it challenging to measure or mitigate food waste, a key metric for improving environmental impact and meeting sustainability goals.
  • Limited Data Visibility: Insights into financial reconciliation or meal usage were delayed by manual data entry, leaving organisers without real-time reporting to make proactive decisions.

These challenges became more pronounced as APL scaled its events, making it clear that the existing process could not support their future ambitions.

Our Solution

The objective was clear: digitally transform the meal ticketing process into an efficient, scalable, and user-friendly system that would eliminate manual errors, streamline workflows, and provide actionable insights.

To achieve this, nocodecreative.io designed and developed ScranQR, a multi-tenant SaaS platform tailored to the needs of large-scale event organisers like APL Event. ScranQR combines cutting-edge automation, real-time tracking, and robust reporting to optimise meal management end to end.

Core Goals

  1. Replace spreadsheets and paper-based workflows with a fully digital system.
  2. Provide real-time meal tracking and reporting.
  3. Reduce food waste and enable accurate sustainability monitoring.
  4. Offer seamless integration with existing event workflows and processes.
  5. Scale as a standalone SaaS product for use by other event organisers.

The Tools and Systems

To bring ScranQR to life, we leveraged a suite of modern tools and platforms:

FlutterFlow

A powerful low-code platform that allowed rapid development of ScranQR’s user-facing app for both web and mobile, enabling a streamlined experience for organisers, catering staff, and contractors.

Supabase

ScranQR’s backend used Supabase for user authentication, real-time data updates, and secure storage of all data, ensuring reliability and scalability.

n8n

As the automation engine, n8n facilitated seamless workflows between systems, handling everything from user onboarding to meal allocation and QR code distribution.

Metabase

For business intelligence, Metabase was integrated with Supabase to generate dynamic dashboards and reports, offering organisers actionable insights on meal usage, supplier compliance, and food waste.

How the System Works

ScranQR digitises every step of the meal management process. Here’s how it works:

Event Setup
Organisers set up an event in ScranQR, specifying meal time slots (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner), staff roles, and catering suppliers. Suppliers and contractors are invited to the platform, where they can manage their own allocations via dedicated dashboards.

Meal Orders
Suppliers submit meal orders for their teams through the platform. These orders are reviewed and approved by the organisers, ensuring accurate allocation and accountability.

QR Code Distribution
Once approved, each meal recipient receives a unique QR code that represents their meal allocation. QR codes include critical details such as recipient name, meal type, and allocated time slot.

Meal Redemption
At meal distribution points, catering staff use the ScranQR app to scan QR codes. This validates the meal allocation in real-time, ensuring meals are only consumed by the authorised recipient and within their designated time slot.

Real-Time Tracking
All meal transactions are recorded in real time, enabling organisers to monitor live data on meal consumption, food waste, and supplier performance via dynamic dashboards.

Business Intelligence
After the event, ScranQR generates detailed reports on:

  • Meal consumption trends.
  • Supplier fulfilment rates.
  • Food waste and sustainability metrics.
  • Financial reconciliation for meal costs and budgets.

The Results

ScranQR delivered transformational results for APL Event:

Time Savings
The automation of meal management workflows reduced staff hours dedicated to this task by over 80%, allowing the team to focus on higher-value activities.

Improved Accuracy
Digitising the process eliminated manual errors, ensuring accurate meal allocations and seamless financial reconciliation.

Enhanced Sustainability
Real-time tracking of meal consumption versus allocation provided insights into food waste, enabling organisers to set and achieve sustainability goals.

Data-Driven Decisions
With live dashboards and reporting tools, APL Event gained the ability to monitor operations in real time and make informed decisions during and after events.

Scalability
As a multi-tenant SaaS platform, ScranQR is designed to scale, allowing other organisers to benefit from the same operational efficiencies.

Client Feedback

"We’re incredibly proud of the SaaS product nocodecreative.io delivered—it’s exactly what we needed for our festival management. The system has brought so many benefits, including improved efficiency, enhanced security, and long-term sustainability.

Managing meal ticketing is now a seamless process, saving us valuable time and reducing errors. Wayne’s expertise ensured the solution was not only functional but perfectly tailored to our needs.

We’re very pleased with how it turned out and we continue working to with nocodecreative.io."

— Phil Ludford, Managing Director, APL Event

Looking Ahead

Building on the success, the platform’s scalability positions it to become a standalone SaaS product for the wider events industry.

By combining automation, real-time data, and actionable insights, ScranQR is not just a meal management tool—it’s a blueprint for operational excellence in event management.

Conclusion

ScranQR demonstrates how the right combination of technology and automation can transform a traditionally manual process into a streamlined, data-driven workflow. Whether you’re managing a festival or looking to optimise your business processes, ScranQR is proof of how innovation can deliver tangible results.

Ready to explore similar solutions for your organisation? Contact nocodecreative.io today and let’s create something extraordinary.