A round-up of the latest news from the contract catering sector…
Restaurant Associates scores with the London Stock Exchange
Compass fine dining division Restaurant Associates this month signed a three-year contract with an annual turnover of £1m to provide in-house catering to the London Stock Exchange at its new headquarters in Paternoster Square. Restaurant Associates will provide modern British cuisine in the private dining facilities on the first floor which it claims will rival some of London’s best restaurants and hotels. It will also offer corporate hospitality in the first-floor media and business complex that will range from a working lunch for two to canapés for up to 300 people.
Dish to serve up first Christmas parties at London’s Showdome
Dish, the London-based outside and party caterer, has teamed up with party planner EventWise to host the first corporate Christmas parties to be held at London’s former Planetarium, which has been renamed the Showdome after an extensive revamp. Party organisers can choose from a three-course meal for 100 guests, or bowl food and Dish’s signature bento boxes for 275 for events from 1-22 December.
Buckley Support Services wraps up deal with Scottish packaging group
Scottish caterer Buckley Support Services has won a three-year contract worth £121,000 in annual turnover to provide breakfast, lunch, vending and hospitality services for 450 employees at Field Packaging in East Kilbride. The company, which is part of the US Chesapeke Group, provides packing for the food and retail sectors.
Holroyd Howe takes on the DCMS in first Government contract
Holroyd Howe has won its first Government contract, which is to cater for 400 staff and visitors to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in Cockspur Street, off Trafalgar Square in London. The contract, which was won from Eurest, runs for three years and is worth £175m in annual turnover. A team of five Holroyd Howe staff will run a café-style operation as well as provide extensive hospitality and vending services and support the department’s Get Fit and Healthy Eating campaigns.
Aramark wins award for training
Aramark’s middle management development programme has won it a Greater London Training Award in the National Training Awards. The group’s award-winning programme in 2003 involved residential workshops for 55 operations managers and 12 regional and operations directors.
Compass chefs of the year head for New Orleans
Jeremy Ford, executive head chef for Restaurant Associates at Merrill Lynch in London, was named the Compass Group’s Senior Chef of the Year at a contest held at Windsor Racehorse. Ford, who has worked with Michel Roux, Brian Turner and Nico Ladenis, won a bronze in the 2001 competition. Stuart Smith, Eurest’s chef de partie at the Feltham, Middlesex head office of IT specialist SAP, won the Junior Chef of the Year award. Their prize includes a four-day trip to New Orleans hosted by celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme.
by Angela Frewin
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