ExCel contracts awarded
ExCel, the huge new exhibition centre set to open in London's Docklands later this year, has awarded catering contracts with a combined revenue expected to top £100m over ten years.
Seven different operators will run 26 outlets throughout the venue and will invest more than £8m fitting them out. The leases vary in length from seven to ten years.
Granada Retail Catering will run nine coffee outlets under its recently launched Viva banner, a Wheeler's seafood bar, a juice bar and three mobile units. It expects the contract to turn over £48m over ten years.
Letheby & Christopher, the events catering arm of Compass, will run a 100-seat Leith's fine dining restaurant, a modern Italian restaurant called The Olive Tree with 120 seats, and a 180-seat Reef bar-café. It will also run the banqueting operation and provide catering on exhibitors' stands. Letheby & Christopher's slice of the deal is expected to turn over £50m.
In effect, the majority of the catering will be run by one company, as Granada and Compass are set to merge on Thursday (27 July).
Further food and beverage outlets at ExCel will be run by Costa Coffee, gourmet soup chain Soup Opera, bagel chain Oi! Bagel, hot potato specialist Fat Jackets, and sandwich bar operator Birley Sandwiches, which specialises in fillings such as salt beef and pastrami.
Each of these units will have between 20-30 seats and will be situated on the exhibition centre's central boulevard, which will be open to the public.
ExCel's food and beverage manager, Mike Dawson, said the centre wanted to offer innovative catering at high street prices. He added "We targeted a whole range of specialist operators - some independently owned - to maintain competition and flexibility and in turn help regulate quality."
Dawson said he was confident that competition would be maintained despite the recently announced merger of Granada and Compass. The two operating companies would remain separate and were in any case providing different elements of the catering offer.
The venue is on a 100-acre site on the northern side of the Royal Victoria Dock in Newham, east London. It is due to open in November and 120 events with more than two million visitors are expected in its first year.
The site will also have several hotels with more than 1,500 bedrooms between them.
by David Shrimpton david.shrimpton@rbi.co.uk
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