Leith's wins £7.5m edinburgh deal
by Nigel Bartlett
Leith's has won a £7.5m contract to provide the catering at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), due to open next August.
It will be the company's first major contract in Scotland, and in the wake of the gain, Leith's said it would set up a Scottish division with the aim of creating further business north of the border.
The three-year contract, worth around £2.5m a year, is the first concrete sign of the company's expansion out of the South-east since its takeover last year by Eurest International, itself part of French hotel and catering giant Accor.
Managing director Prue Leith stressed the significance of the contract, which is to start officially next June.
"I put my utmost effort into gaining this contract - I wanted to get into Scotland, and I wanted it to be with something big," said Miss Leith.
The company would start looking for further Scottish contracts in the next six months, although she stressed the immediate priority was to set up operations at the EICC.
Around 150 full- and part-time staff are to be taken on for the contract, which will be managed by Sally Hamilton Purvis, previously deputy general manager for Leith's at London's Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.
Miss Leith said it was a measure of the importance of the contract that in May Miss Hamilton Purvis was seconded to Eurest in Paris for three months to gain experience at sites such as the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay and what Miss Leith termed the city's "grand conference centres".
The EICC, whose opening is eagerly awaited by Edinburgh's hoteliers, will be able to accommodate 1,200 delegates and has secured £25m-worth of bookings between next summer and 2002.
In addition, Miss Leith said she hoped to attract a high level of corporate event business, which would prove highly lucrative.
She described the facilities at the centre, which have been designed by Tricon Foodservice Consultants, as "an absolute joy".
"The layout and equipment are just marvellous," Miss Leith said.
It is the second major gain this summer for Leith's conferences and banqueting division, which takes over catering operations at London's Natural History Museum on 1 October.
Earlier this year Franáois Thuillier, the Eurest director sent to oversee Leith's, signalled the company's intention to create a national presence (Caterer, 10 February).
Mr Thuillier said then that regional divisions would be set up as and when business was gained.
