A round-up of the latest news from the contract catering industry...
Charlton House wins £1m contract with Sun Microsystems
Reading-based staff caterer Charlton House has won a one-year rolling contract worth between £950,000 and £1m to cater for 1,500 staff across two sites for Sun Microsystems, the business computer, software and services specialist. The Charlton House team is running the staff restaurant, two café bars and a retail shop at Sun’s corporate headquarters in Blackwater, Surrey, along with a café/deli-bar at a second site in Sale, Cheshire. The contract, which was held by Compass division Baxter & Platts, was awarded by Dalkia ETS, a facilities management provider to Sun. It boosts Charlton House’s annualised turnover to £40m.
Article continues below
SSP opens 13 venues at Zurich Airport in 30m deal
Select Service Partner, Compass’s airport division, last week opened 13 bars and restaurants at Zurich Airport’s new Airside Centre. The seven-year contract, worth Sfr 30m in annual turnover, has created 250 new jobs. The new units include a restaurant containing a Mamma Leone’s pizza unit and the Grillzone roast meat outlet, a Burger King, a Caffé Ritazza and a Swiss bakery called Bakeside. SSP also opened four bars aimed at different types of passenger, and has taken over the operation of five gate bars.
Kids love roasts but hate salads, claims research
Roast dinners, Chinese food and pasta emerged as the top meals for children aged between four and16, according to a survey of 949 youngsters by the Stroke Association. Their least liked meals were curries, baked beans on toast and salads. Apples, grapes, potatoes and carrots topped their fruit and vegetable league – but tomatoes, pineapples, Brussel sprouts and spinach came bottom of the class.
Gateshead school meals team named best in-house caterer
Gateshead Council’s School Meals Service beat off competition from more than 40 local authorities to be named Internal Catering Service Team of the Year in a national Association for Public Service Excellence award. The team feeds more than 70,000 pupils each week in nearly 90 schools across the Lancashire borough. Since taking over the service in 2000, the in-house team has boosted the take-up of school meals by more than 2,000 pupils a day and introduced healthier and expanded menus, breakfast clubs, milk bars, after-school catering, and a healthy packed lunch option called Tastebusters.
Geest buys hospital meal supplier Anglia Crown for £14m
Chilled food supplier Geest has moved into the market for hospital food with the £14m acquisition of Anglia Crown, the largest supplier of fresh meals in the £250m market, of which £65m is outsourced. Anglia Crown, which reported operating profits of £2m in the year to 28 March, 2004, supplies more than 100 hospitals from sites in Colchester and Manchester.
ISS Eaton to cater at Grosvenor in Mayfair
ISS Eaton has taken over the catering at the head office of Grosvenor, which manages the Duke of Westminster’s estate, in London’s Mayfair. In a deal worth £1m in turnover across three years, ISS Eaton will cater for staff and service the meeting rooms and executive dining rooms that are hired out as business venues.
Brakes buys Compass’s chilled food supplier
Foodservice supplier Brakes has agreed a new five-year contract to provide frozen and chilled food to contract caterer Compass after buying its former supplier. Brakes has acquired the chilled distribution division of Peter’s Food Service for an undisclosed sum.
by Angela Frewin
