Marks & Spencer has outsourced its head office foodservice operation to contract caterer BaxterSmith.
The move marks a radical departure for the high-street retailer, and is the first time Marks & Spencer has taken its catering out of house.
The contract will start in November and is understood to be an open-ended "rolling" contract, although both sides have declined to reveal the annual turnover.
The current in-house catering staff, about 70 people, will transfer over to BaxterSmith under TUPE regulations.
BaxterSmith will initially provide staff dining and hospitality services at the retailer’s Baker Street, London, head office as well as at its computer centre at Stockley Park near Heathrow, feeding some 3,000 employees.
M&S will move its headquarters to Paddington Basin, London, in spring of next year and the caterer will manage the relocation of the foodservice operation to that site.
BaxterSmith fought off competition from a number of other bidders, believed to include Charlton House, Wilson Storey Halliday, and Avenance, to win the contract.
by Nic Paton