Giving Food for Thought
British attitudes to food have changed. Long gone are the days when everything had to be smothered in gravy, when processed cheese would be a good enough filing for a sandwich and butter was the main ingredient in every dish. Travel, the accessibility of different ingredients in the supermarkets and increased awareness regarding the production of foodstuffs has created a sophisticated public with demanding food tastes.
According to Linda Halliday, chair of the British Hospitality Association's, Food and Service Management Forum, "The last decade witnessed a huge shift in the food services caterers are providing at work. Only 35 per cent of 580m meals served by contract caterers every year are plated, the majority of food served are snacks foods. Lighter, faster eating is now the essence and the phrase 'grab and go' is now one of the most familiar terms in the contract caterer's operations manual."
This move in eating habits is affecting more than just the type of food served. It is also affecting the frequency of visits paid by employees to catering operations and subsequently the availability of purchasing foods as well as the areas in which food is offered for sale and consumed.
"The high street has a massive influence on how and what is served in the workplace," comments Keith Wilson, Commercial Director of independent contract caterer, Wilson Storey Halliday. "Today's eateries are a place to socialise, work, snack and relax so we have to make the areas we use as multi-purpose and attractive to customers as possible to ensure that clients are gaining maximum advantage from the spaces they allocate to dining."
Wilson Storey Halliday works with clients to refurbish 65 per cent of all sites where the company takes over existing catering contracts. Recognisable high street brands are featured in the workplace with this move mainly driven by the larger operators who own high street food outlets, such as Compass and its Ritazza operation.
Once you've captured the footfall you need to live up to the expectation that the customer has in his mind's eye. As Wilson explains, "The availability of high quality lighter eating everything from bagels, coffees, salads and sandwiches on every street corner means that we have to deliver an offering that matches or even betters what is available generally within a few minutes walk from the office. People do not always want to sit in a restaurant and eat, they want to use gardens, work at their desk whilst eating or even take the food home with them, so we're finding that portable food is also contributing to the demand for lighter eating."
HEALTHIER LIFESTYLES:-
Recently, headlines have focused on poor diet and the need to encourage a healthier food lifestyle than the fast food culture. Those who outsource catering generally do so to provide a service that is effective rather than to play a 'big brother' role in the lives of those using the services. Many food fashions are faddy and die away as quickly as they entered the market such as the current low carbohydrates diets, but contract caterers must be prepared to embrace alternative offerings into their services where they become a regular feature in people's everyday lives or the client is driving specific corporate objectives with their catering.
Of increasing importance is not only the quality of the food served to their employees but how the produce is sourced. Are local suppliers used? Can organic foods be sourced? Can the ethical behaviour of the supply chain be evidenced? Businesses are being asked to account for themselves and their impact on the wider environment. Suppliers of services into those organisations are being challenged with supporting their clients' role in the community. Caterers are not immune from this.
Making the supply chain visible to the client offers a host of benefits for those managing catering services. Pricing structures become more identifiable, quality easier to monitor and service user demands easier to satisfy. The issues of what ingredients are used and where they come from can frequently be the determining factor for companies deciding which caterer to turn to. With large catering houses offering scale and the smaller caterers offering quality led services, it can be difficult to choose a partner, but as Wilson explained it is the supply chain factor that can make the difference. "Our customers are primarily concerned about quality. Our primary goal is always to source the best quality ingredients and we will gladly do this within a specified supplier base that supports the client's additional catering or corporate objectives. So the use of local suppliers where relevant food stuffs can be sourced is always greeted with enthusiasm."
Yeo Valley is one such client that Wilson Storey Halliday works with and where as much produce as possible is sourced from organic suppliers. The sourcing of foodstuffs with a certified fair trade production history is also commonplace. Organisations including the DTI and ITV are keen that as much of the produce used to feed its teams is garnered from such sources. Using organic and fair trade produce impacts the price of foods served but it does not mean sacrificing quality . . .
The demand for ethically sourced products has driven Wilson Storey Halliday to invest in developing a unique coffee brand that it is rolling out across the hundreds of businesses it caters for. This Down to Earth coffee brand is made from 100 per cent certified organic, fair trade and sustainable coffee beans, and the client can choose with which cause to align themselves. Keith Wilson said "There is growing awareness of coffee as a commodity and how its production is managed. As more people see the availability of such a product in the high street and on supermarket shelves, it is only a matter of time until they will expect it as a norm within the workplace. The development of Down to Earth enables us to deliver this part of our everyday service."
Article from FM Services (PFM)September journal