Host Contract Management signs £50m deal with food supplier Brakes

National catering group Host Contract Management, run by entrepreneur Jerry Brand, has signed a £50m deal with supplier Brakes.

Host’s 75 contracted units in business and industry, healthcare and education will be supplied with dry, chilled and frozen goods from the end of January.

In addition, Brakes will deliver goods to the caterer’s in-house contract business in healthcare, which includes a further 53 sites, and the new £3m turnover, 16-site PGL holiday/adventure camps contract which began last November.

A further deal which sees Brakes nominated for fresh butchery, fish, greengrocery, bakery and dairy has also been negotiated. Host has also introduced another fresh food supplier to give unit managers the option to source locally-based produce from supply group e-foods.

Brand, managing director of Host, described it as an unusual deal as most contractors will use several suppliers.

“Giving our unit managers the option of using fresh supplies from e-foods offers them an automatic cost comparison with Brakes,” he said. “This means that while we’ve negotiated a favourable deal with Brakes, we have also introduced an element of competition on fresh produce, so our managers have the choice of buying locally or nationally and with whoever offers the best quality at the best price.”

This is the first initiative to be introduced by Host in 2010, as part of its ‘Starter for 10’ campaign.

Others will include developments on its e-procurement system ‘g-shop’ which connects producers and growers with local operators, and the completion of its Caternet Club concept which offers unit managers an online catering management system for budgeting, menu management, nutritional analysis, e-procurement and subsequent reporting via a single website.
 
                                                    
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By Janie Stamford

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