Olive Catering lands £750,000 SSL deal

Olive Catering Services has sealed a £750,000 deal with SSL to cater at the manufacturer's Manchester headquarters, marking the first stage of the caterer's planned expansion into northern England.

Olive will feed 300 staff and provide hospitality services for SSL's board members in a three-year deal worth £250,000 in annual turnover which was previously run by Charlton House. SSL owns condom maker Durex and footwear product manufacturer Scholl.

Warwickshire-based Olive, which has 65 contracts and had a turnover of £7m last year, still caters as far south as Milton Keynes but has wound up two contracts in South Wales to target opportunities in and around Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.

To support its move north, Olive has recruited former Catering Alliance area manager Nicola Quinn in the same role. Based around Manchester, she was a sales manager for Mellors Catering Services.

Olive director Andrew Norrie said: "There's a lot of quality businesses around those cities and a real opportunity for a caterer like us."

The company also has an as yet undisclosed deal in Leeds on the books.

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By Chris Druce

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