Overall ranking: 25 (41)
Contract caterers ranking: 4 (8)
Andrew Main - Snapshot
Andrew Main is the chief executive of Aramark UK, which is the third largest contract caterer in the UK with an estimated turnover of £360m, more than 1,100 contracts and in excess of 12,500 staff. Its acquisition of Campbell Catering, which started as a joint venture in 2000, has made it the leading contract caterer in the Irish Republic.
Aramark is part of the US-based Aramark Corporation, which operates in 20 countries and employs nearly 242,000 staff. In 2005, the corporation reported a record net income of $288m (£151m) (an increase of 10%) on turnover 8% ahead at $11b.
Andrew Main - Career guide
Andrew Main, 44, was born in Scotland, has held management positions with Grand Metropolitan (which became Compass), Scottish & Newcastle Breweries and Universal Ogden Services, which was acquired by Sodexho in 1997.
He joined Aramark UK in 1994 as divisional director for Scotland and offshore operations, moving in 2000 to the role of managing director of specialist markets. Two years later, he relocated to the USA as executive vice-president the business services division and was promoted to president in 2003.
He took over from Bill Toner as chief executive of Aramark in the UK in February 2005.
Andrew Main - What we think
Andrew Main has inherited a much stronger group than his predecessor, Bill Toner, who turned around what was regarded as an under-achieving subsidiary after joining in 1999. Under Toner, turnover soared from £186m to more than £300m in 2003.
By 2004, however, growth was languishing in the “low single-digits” largely due to the loss of offshore contracts and write-downs on vending services.
Nevertheless, Toner left Main with a restructured top team of five managing directors overseeing different sectors or regions; an additional 200 contracts from the 2004 acquisition of Midlands-based Catering Alliance, and a new hotels and leisure division, Parallel, created in partnership with restaurateur Roy Ackerman to focus on quality food in public catering.
During Main’s three-year stint in the USA, he achieved historically high levels of contract retention within the business services division by building up a strong leadership team, focusing on retail-led solutions and introducing customer oriented brands.
He returned to the UK with a critical view of the sector’s unhealthy fixation on the cost of the supply chain.
Breaking an 18-month media silence in August 2006, Main told Caterer: “If I had one disappointment in coming back to the UK, it was a fixation on the supply chain, and that was a genuine disappointment. Here’s an industry that moved away from what the critical purpose was, which was to provide a good service to clients and their employees, and there was an incredible fixation around what was happening on the supply-chain.”
He revealed that Aramark UK was in year one of a five-year business plan.
Main has invested heavily in the training and development of Aramark employees and has extended the group’s partnership with Gordon Ramsay to cover front of house staff as well as chefs.
He has also launched an executive fine-dining extension of the Parallel brand, called Parallel City, which targets top-end London companies.
Main is confident that Aramark’s imminent return to private ownership will enable the group to operate more effectively in the UK.
Aramark Corporation’s chief executive Joseph Neubauer sealed his £4.4b buy-out bid in August 2006 and the deal was expected to complete in late 2006 or early 2007.
“The quarterly Wall Street reviews were hampering the ability to take a long view with clients,” Main explained.
Main is a Fellow of the Hotel & Catering International Association
Andrew Main - Further information
Aramark company website
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