Sodexho wins new deal in Northern Ireland
Sodexho has won a three-year contract to provide catering, vending and hospitality services at five sites of the Northern Ireland civil service. The contract, which will turn over £770,000 per year, will see a total of 30 Sodexho staff work on the contract, providing services to 2,800 civil service staff. It was previously run by Eurest.

Scolarest renews contract in Durham
Scolarest has extended its contract with Durham County Council for two years. The contract catering giant will provide meals to 238 primary schools across the region. The contract, which Scolarest has held since 1994, will turn over £6.2m per year and employ 800 Scolarest staff.

Employees give Compass a vote of confidence
Compass has been voted the 7th best big company to work for in the UK. The contract caterer, which employs 75,000 catering staff and has annual sales of £2.57b, was hailed by its employees for its supportive and fun-loving working environment. 71% say that their manager cares about their job, 75% are informed when they have performed well, 76% said that they were talked to openly and 68% cited their managers as excellent role models. Don Davenport, Compass chief executive for UK and Ireland, said: "This result is well-deserved recognition for our front-line mangers, who play such a key role in inspiring, motivating and developing our front-line teams." The group, which has 8,500 UK outlets, runs a "Be a Star" programme to reward customer service excellence, and a "Great Ideas" scheme recognises 100 employees a year.

by Tom Bill