Contract bureacracy slammed in survey

Catering companies are still being prevented from winning contracts in the Government sector by tender documents that can run to thousands of pages.

Jim Cartwright, chairman of the British Hospitality Association's contract catering forum, deplored the difficulties at the launch of the BHA's annual contract catering survey in Birmingham this week.

"Nearly a quarter of NHS work has not been market-tested, and over 80% has been won by the in-house tenderers. A large percentage of these tenders did not have an alternative bid," he said.

British contract caterers served more than one billion meals in 1994 compared with 486 million in 1990. Turnover in 1994, which reached a total of £2.18b, has more than doubled since 1990.

The survey is based on responses from more than 90% of the major contract caterers operating in the UK.

It shows that the industry has survived the recession well by diversifying beyond its core market.

Contractors have picked up more business in education, healthcare and catering for the public.

Catering for staff in business, the Civil Service and Government-funded agencies account for just 50% of the outlets served by contract caterers, compared with 82.5% in 1990.

The number of outlets in this segment served by contractors grew last year by about 340 to nearly 7,500.

These gains are bigger, higher-value sites, compared with those where in-house caterers provide the service: while contractors served 42.5% of business-and-industry outlets, they served 66% of the meals in the sector.

For the second consecutive year, caterers improved their penetration of the state education sector. They served 163 million meals in state schools last year, compared with 94 million in 1993 and 31 million in 1992.

Contractors spent £895m on food purchases, an increase of 10.5% on 1993, reflecting an 11.5% increase in the total number of meals and a 9% increase in turnover.

The industry's wage bill totalled £925m, an increase of 7.3%, in line with a 7.6% increase in staff employed.

Turnover from overseas operations of UK food service management companies in the UK was also up. It increased from £458m in 1993 to £528m last year.

l1995 UK Contract Catering Industry, published by the British Hospitality Association, and co-sponsored by the Caterplan Division of CPC (UK) and Countrywide Catering Distributors, costs £50. Telephone Steven King on 0181-499 6641 for a copy.