Ministry of Defence awards £750m food supply contract to Purple Foodservice Solutions

Purple Foodservice Solutions (PFS) has been awarded a contract worth around £150m a year to deliver food to British armed forces around the world.

PFS will take over the food supply for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 2 October for five years, with two opportunities for two-year extensions.

The MoD planned to announce the new contract in May but held off until a High Court challenge from current contractor 3663 was defeated last week.

The contract will involve the frequent delivery of 1,500 ambient, fresh, chilled and frozen food products to 1,200 military bases including the South Atlantic, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, the UK and Germany.

PFS is a consortium made up of Hertfordshire-based DBC Foodservice (which will look after the UK end), Switzerland-based Supreme Foodservice (which will handle overseas depots) and meat and poultry supplier the Vestey Group.

Supreme and Vestey are currently partners with 3663 in the outgoing contract.

Peter Judge, managing director at DBC Foodservice, said the contract would create 390 new jobs at the company, whose current client list includes the NHS, HM Prison Service, Aramark, Initial Catering, Rail Gourmet and Caffè Nero.

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By Angela Frewin

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