Elior has new focus on facilities management
Contract caterer Elior is to launch a dedicated facilities management division as part of a major shake-up of its UK operations, Caterer can reveal.
The company's Facilities Management division, which will include Avenance Defence Contracts, inherits a facilities management concern worth £30m.
The contract caterer's two other divisions following the restructure will be Concessions and Contract Management.
Concessions will include travel and retail contracts such as Tesco, as well as its stadium caterer Azure and Digby Trout Restaurants, which runs the catering at the Tower of London. It will also run Venue-Elior, which launches later this month.
Contract Management will cover the caterer's traditional areas of operation such as business and industry, but will see education and healthcare split into two distinct entities.
Elior has seen education contract turnover increase 80% in the past three years to £18m while healthcare has doubled to £5.3m since 2003.
Elior chief executive Mike Audis said: "These strategic changes clearly present new opportunities for Elior. We believe this is the right time to take significant steps which will make us stronger moving forward."
Food service consultant Chris Stern said the move was logical. "It should help make who and what they are clearer to the market'" he said. "Elior is not always perceived to be as large as it actually is but adopting a similar structure to larger rivals, such as Compass, should help make where they're involved clearer to clients."
A small number of redundancies are expected as part of the shake-up, although Elior said it was too soon to say how many. Industry sources suggest the number will be around 30.
The changes take place from 28 May.
In a separate move, Simon Pollard, managing director of Elior's education and healthcare division, has announced he will be leaving the business.
More schools sign up for Elior food education >>
Elior poaches senior chef from Sodexho >>
By Chris Druce