Maidaid Brand Guidelines: The 1974 British Pub Glasswasher Maker Now Based in Brackley

Glasswashers for British pubs, from 1974.

Maidaid began with a problem behind the bar. According to an article marking the company’s 45th anniversary, published in 2019 by CEDA, the UK association of catering equipment distributors, the business was first formed as Maidaid Ltd in 1974 by founders who saw a need for undercounter cabinet glasswashers in British pubs. At the time, the article says, most pubs still washed glasses by hand with a rotating brush on the counter and dried each one with a cloth.

The idea was slow to sell. The CEDA article says it took three hard years of trying before the breakthrough came with a major pub group, when single orders from tenants and landlords turned into a regular stream of business and the company grew quickly. It adds that Maidaid machines were still the choice of that pub group in 2019, supplied through one of its distributors.

The company register gives a glimpse of that early expansion. Companies House records show that the company now behind the brand, Buttress Group Limited, was incorporated in 1982 under the name The Maidaid Glasswasher Company (London) Limited, and the register lists several other companies, some since dissolved or renamed, that carried the Maidaid name in different parts of the country.

As the business grew it took on a second name. The CEDA article says the company merged its Halcyon and Maidaid brands so that it could offer a wider range; the business still trades as Maidaid Halcyon. Once it decided to concentrate on warewashing, the article says, it added larger rack and flight machines to its regular range, and it was one of the few suppliers to keep a rack machine as a stock item. The company marked 50 years in business in 2024, it told the Foodservice Consultants Society International’s UK branch that year.

C Range, D Range, Evo and Elite.

Maidaid’s range is organised into tiers. The company’s website names the C Range, the D Range and the Evo, and in 2026 it added a top line called Elite; the Halcyon name survives as a line of its own. Across those tiers it sells glasswashers, dishwashers, utensil and pot washers, rack and flight machines and ice makers, along with water softeners, water treatment units and its own detergents, according to the CEDA article and the company’s website.

The Evo, short for Evolution, is the range the company described in most detail when it answered questions for FCSI UK in February 2024. It called the Evo its most premium undercounter range, built for busy pubs, bars, clubs, hotels, supermarkets, hospitals, stadiums and work canteens. The company highlighted soft-touch keypads beside a large backlit display that, it said, changes colour with the operating status of the machine and the stage of the wash cycle, so that staff can read it from a distance. It also pointed to a moulded wash tank and rack guide, a double-skinned body and what it describes as a patented dual-flow wash pump.

The Elite launch in 2026 came with a wider reset. In a promoted article in The Caterer in July 2026, sponsored by Maidaid, the company called Elite its most significant product launch in 52 years and said the Halcyon, C Range, D Range and Evo lines had all been redeveloped at the same time. Its chief commercial officer, Jag Thandi, said the business was moving away from competing purely on price towards a proposition built on innovation, sustainability and customer satisfaction, and the launch was fronted by a new brand ambassador, Jodie Kidd.

Service is a large part of how the company presents itself. Its website offers site surveys and layout drawings, installation and staff training, removal of old machines, maintenance plans and a two-year warranty on the C Range, D Range and Evo, and it says its support team has received more than 11 industry awards. The 2019 CEDA article listed awards from CEDA, Catering Insight and ENSE between 2016 and 2019.

Design and documentation.

Commercial dishwasher makers sell to professional kitchens rather than households. Their catalogues are sorted by how the ware moves: undercounter machines and glasswashers that sit beneath a bar or counter, hood-type or door-type machines that wash one rack at a time, rack conveyors for bigger runs of baskets, and flight-type machines that carry plates on a continuous belt. Hobart and Comenda both organise their ranges in this way on their websites.

The customer lists read like a map of institutional eating. Hobart names restaurants, hotels, hospitals, long-term care, schools and grocery retailers; Comenda adds pastry shops, ships, central kitchens and airline caterers, and says its flight-type machines are built for large canteens, hospitals and inflight catering. The baskets themselves come in standard sizes: Comenda quotes racks of 400 by 400 and 500 by 500 millimetres.

The trade meets at fairs rather than in shops. INTERNORGA, held every year in Hamburg, describes itself as a platform for hospitality and foodservice, with a hall area for kitchen technology and equipment, and plans its 100th edition for March 2027. In Milan, HostMilano is another fixed date; the American trade magazine Foodservice Equipment Reports keeps photo galleries from its 2023 and 2025 editions. Comenda’s own awards page lists an innovation prize from the Rest’Hotel fair in Caen.

Ownership in this sector often runs through large groups. Hobart is a brand of Illinois Tool Works’ food-equipment group; Comenda was the first company of Italy’s Ali Group, which has since gathered further warewashing names. This guide sets out what can be checked about each brand and marks what rests on the company’s own word.

Buttress Group, trading as Maidaid Halcyon.

Today the business trades as Buttress Group Ltd, trading as Maidaid Halcyon, a name it uses in its own policy documents, which in January 2024 were signed by its managing director, Oliver Booth. Its address is in Brackley, Northamptonshire, in a building the company calls the Engine Shed, and the same address appears on the Companies House records for Buttress Group Limited.

The company now calls itself a specialist in commercial warewashing and ice equipment for the hospitality, healthcare and food-service sectors, and says it supports kitchens from independent venues to large public-sector operations. It describes itself as the UK’s largest and most trusted supplier in that field; The Caterer’s promoted article called it one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of warewashing and ice-making equipment. The 2019 CEDA article credited its employees for the reputation it had built with catering equipment distributors.

The way Maidaid tells its own story has shifted with the 2026 relaunch. Its website now leads with the line “the UK’s trusted commercial warewash & ice equipment specialist” and promises a “360 degree solution,” from pre-sales advice and drawings to triage of service calls and engineer support by messaging app, Its 2026 promoted article put new emphasis on innovation and sustainability, while the 1974 founding date and the Halcyon name remain part of how it presents itself.

For a design guide, Maidaid shows how a British supplier built on one pub-trade product — the undercounter glasswasher — can grow into a full warewashing range while keeping its name and its pub roots in view. Compare Classeq, another British glasswasher and dishwasher maker, and Winterhalter, the German warewashing specialist. For this guide we use a bottle green, a pale glass white and a lime accent with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Maidaid’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.