Expand and contract

Campbell Bewley Group

St John's Court, Dublin 9

Tel: 00 353 1 862 0900

Founded 1968; the biggest player on the Irish market. Bought Caterwise in Wales and Effective Partnerships in south-east England in 1998.

Carroll Food Services

68 Pembroke Rd Dublin 4

Tel: 353 1 668 60 95

Independent, with around 20 contracts and growing. Its ethos is to maintain close working relationships with clients.

Compass

Pearse Street, Dublin 2

Tel: 00 353 1 670 4226

Divided into: Eurest for business and industry: Bateman for healthcare; and Chartwells for educational establishments (no state-paid school meals service to any extent).

Fitzers

51a Dawson Street, Dublin 2

Tel: 00 353 1 670 6577

Grew from a chain of high-street Conran-style restaurants. Brings restaurant standards to premier sites. Family-owned and hands-on.

Gardner Merchant

23 Rock Hill, Main St, Blackrock, Co Dublin

Tel: 00 353 1 668 5088

Has 330 clients, and claims 35% of the contract catering market.

Masterchefs

Chapelizod, Dublin 20

Tel: 00 353 1 836 9793

Founded by master chefs. Staff of 50 plus 600 part-timers. Prepares food at its own facility, and finishes on-site.

Sutcliffe

Group 3 Eustace St, Dublin 2

Tel: 00 353 1 671 2700

Acquired John D Carroll Catering in 1992 and National Catering in 1993. Irish managing director since 1992, Malcolm Devlin, left Sutcliffe last year for what were described as personal reasons.

Willowbrook Foods

50a Whiterock Rd, Killinchy, Newtownards, Co Down

Tel: 01238 541603

Pre-prepared food from modern factory in "frost-free County Down".

THE days of the dinner lady waiting in staff canteens have gone. Instead, there are mobile, well-educated diners, and a contract-catering market growing at almost 9% a year.

"More and more companies are outsourcing, so their time is not taken up with operating in-house facilities," says Beth Brazil, Compass spokeswoman. "The actual market itself is growing. Clients are now required to add value to their companies when looking for staff. Having catering facilities is another asset to attract people."

Hand in hand with a booming Irish economy has come the "revolving door syndrome". People join a company; stay while they receive training; then move on to a job that offers more money. Many companies are attempting to combat this by using catering services as a means of staff retention.

"In every way it's a good time for us," says Brazil. "We are caterers, so we know the business. We take on that catering for firms - with checks and performance measures to ensure they get the quality of service suitable for their business."

People have become more discerning about what, where, and how they eat. The old system of set eating periods has gone. There is an element of grazing throughout the day in many cases, with just a smaller, older group seeking traditional foods.

"The level of spend people have is way up," says Brazil. "But if we are not supplying what they want, we are not going to have uptake levels and the client is not going to be happy with his subsidy level. Levels vary from house to house. Some subsidise, some don't, and some firms subsidise just some elements."

She notes that tighter health regulations have made older contracts look to their premises. "It has helped the industry in that it stopped some of the black holes that existed where people were preparing food at home. It creates a level playing field and in the context of safety of the customer it's critical."

Gardner Merchant's business development manager, Eddie McGrath, observes: "You have to be up to speed on food regulations. Companies that do their own catering can't run the risk of having poor practices in place. An outbreak of food poisoning could close down a factory for days."

With an estimated 600 contracts already established, there's plenty of competition between the big players. And competition is also coming from a number of determined smaller players for an estimated 700 contracts at present conducted in-house by firms.

Campbell Bewley dominates the market along with subsidiaries of Gardner Merchant, Sutcliffe and Compass. However, smaller Irish companies are finding niches and growing. Fitzers, Masterchefs and Carroll Food Services all feature in bids for selected contracts.

According to industry insiders net profits range from 4% to 10%.

Increased activity has brought problems in finding catering staff. Back-to-work people are sought for 20-hour weeks. Pay rates vary between IR£3.50 (£2.94) and IR£4.50 (£3.78) an hour; but shopping centres compete for staff at IR£5 (£4.20) an hour. Already unions are calling for the IR£4.40 (£3.69) minimum wage, due to begin in April 2000, to be raised to IR£4.90 (£4.11).

In many cases an answer to staff shortages is de-skilling in the kitchen. McGrath says: "We buy in vegetables pre-prepared so we don't have a requirement for vegetable prep machines, or somebody to peel spuds or carrots. Product that's pre-prepared is fresh, if not fresher, than the unprepared. The unprepared can just sit there, whereas the prepared has got to be shifted."

John McCann, owner of Willowbrook Foods, a grower who specialises in pre-packed vegetables, says he has been inundated with enquiries from caterers since he showed his wares at food and equipment trade show Catex 99.

"We are processors as well as growers," says McCann. "Pre-prepared food reduces the amount of labour required and there's no waste. It is cost effective and can be hygiene-audited by caterers. We supply prepared chilled salad and veg portions in bags that are gas-flushed for longer life."

There are indications that the Irish economy's rapid rate of growth is slowing down - but not yet declining. Massive EU funding that began five years ago will reduce to very modest levels from next year on.

However, Ireland has kick-started itself; and there is a confidence in the economy and the future that has generated its own momentum that can only be good for the future of food folk. n