Number of school and staff catering outlets is falling
The number of staff and school catering outlets run by private contractors declined last year for the first time since 1997, according to the British Hospitality Association's Food and Service Management Industry Survey 2004, published this week.
More than 600 school restaurants and 139 staff restaurants were either shut or taken in-house during 2003. This was offset by rises in defence and offshore contracts. Overall, there was a 2.5% drop to a total of 18,865 contracted outlets.
Jonathan Doughty, group managing director of Coverpoint Consultancy, said that business parks switching to one central food service building that served a number of clients had partly caused the drop in the number of staff restaurants.
Yet despite the fall in outlets, overall turnover in the contract catering sector rose year-on-year by 2.4% to £3.7b and the number of meals served increased.
This was a result of more outlets serving three meals a day, and a growing trend for lighter, less expensive snack meals, which accounted for 70% of all meals served.
Linda Halliday, a director of Wilson Storey Halliday, said in her introduction to the survey: "The main driver of continuing expansion is commercialisation, which is leading catering companies to a sales-led rather than a product-led approach."
Companies spent more on training staff in management, customer service and marketing. The industry's training budget rose from £13m to £19m last year, but it was unclear how much of this was allocated to cooking skills.
"Whereas, traditionally, caterers were concerned with the production of food, they are now responsible for maximising its sale - a role of even greater importance today," said Halliday.
But consultant Adrian Stokes claimed the effect of increased commercialisation was to strangle innovation. "I believe the caterer has an obligation to expose the client to new dishes, but in a commercial environment your scope is restricted."
The use of in-house brands rose by 5% and high-street brands by 17%. In the past five years the number of branded outlets has quadrupled to 10,000.
Another trend was the increasing number of services other than catering that companies provided. These included running crŠches, medical facilities, photocopying and gardening. There were 5,000 multi-service contracts in operation last year.
"Clearly, catering companies are moving closer to being all-round support service providers, with the skills to provide what is widely considered to be the most difficult element - food - but with the management ability to provide a wide range of services," said Halliday.
In all, 19 companies, representing 93% of the contracted market, participated in the survey.
The survey, which costs £35, is available from the British Hospitality Association (0845 880 7744).
BHA survey at a glance
| 2003 | 2002 | Change | |
| Annual turnover (total billings to client) | £3.78b | £3.69b | +2.4% |
| Wage costs | £1.66b | £1.61b | +3.1% |
| Food costs | £1.27b | £1.3b | -2.3% |
| Other purchases | £343m | £290m | +18.3% |
| Management fee income | £510m | £490m | +4.1% |
| Average food cost per meal | 76p | 81.9p | -7.2% |
| Average number of meals per outlet per year | 88,135 | 82,359 | +7% |
| Total number of staff | 260,411 | 261,641 | -0.5% |
| Number of full-time staff per outlet | 6.7 | 6.6 | +1.5% |
| Labour costs as a percentage of turnover | 43.8 | 43.6 | +0.5% |
| Number of food suppliers | 1,531 | 1,625 | -5.8% |
| Number of non-food suppliers | 1,278 | 1,750 | -27% |
The following companies participated in the survey: Accent Catering Services, Aramark, BaxterSmith, Caterhouse, Celtic Catering Partnership, Charlton House, Compass Group, Cygnet Foods, Elior UK, Goodfellows Catering Management Services, Holroyd Howe, Initial, Just Deli, Lexington, Mellors Catering Services, Mitie Catering Services, Mount Charles Catering, Sodexho and Wilson Storey Halliday.
