Profile: Andrew Main, chief executive of Aramark

When Andrew Main was appointed chief executive of Aramark UK after a period in the USA, he says he returned to a contract catering sector that had sidelined its true purpose to provide good service, and developed an unhealthy fixation on the cost of the supply chain. In a Caterer exclusive, he breaks his 18-month media silence and talks about Aramark's recent privatisation, its relationship with Gordon Ramsay, and why Aramark staff feel that they are winning

What makes contract catering an attractive industry from your perspective? One of the key attractions is the terrific development opportunities that exist in this business.

To give you an example, I was working in the USA and, over a 12-month period, our teams in Houston went from hosting the Superbowl, to hosting George Bush Senior's 80th birthday party, to hosting the baseball All Star party, to finally working with the evacuees from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Whether it's working with the military, or in the health service, or in business and industry, there's such a wide variety of experiences that one can have. I think that the industry really hones your commercial skills. It's a tight-margin business.

What attracted you to Aramark, and what has kept you here for 12 years? I thought of Aramark as a competitor for many years, and was impressed with its long-standing client relationships. It wasn't in it for a quick buck, it was in it for the long run and its teams were encouraged to do the right thing for the client and its customers. As I dug further into the organisation, it became very clear that it saw its earnings as an outcome, as opposed to its raison d'être. Its raison d'être was to deliver great service for its clients.

What were the reasons for accepting the role as UK chief executive? There was a lot of dialogue between our chairman and chief executive, Joseph Neubauer, and myself, and what we really focused on was how could we marry my eight years in a senior management role in Aramark in the UK and then the three years in the USA heading one of our lines of business, and the kind of experiences I gained from that, and really getting into the corporation's complete DNA.

Did this make it more difficult to accept the role? It was a question of how could we marry these to lead the business, to take the business forward in the UK.

You say "to take the business forward". Under previous leadership, it had achieved many of its top-line targets, so what was the next stage? To continue to build on these great client relationships in the USA and UK, but equally to focus on introducing and implementing some really powerful operating models in each of our markets. I also feel that my role is a bridge, if you like, to link our organisation back to the USA, and that's something I take very seriously.

How do you want people to view the Aramark brand? I hope our employees will view Aramark as a truly great place to work, where they're engaged in the business, where they're participating in shaping the direction of the business, where they are rewarded for strong performance and where they can see a real career and personal development growth opportunities.

With our customers, I hope that they see Aramark as a company that is truly delivering a consistently high quality of service that meets their needs throughout the day and eliminates the need for them to go outside, to the high street.

And finally, I hope that our clients view us as a company that truly understands their unique requirements and has figured out how to deliver value consistently.

And that's getting harder, I would guess, because clients are looking for more, they're looking for a broader range of services and delivery. I'm not sure that it's getting harder, to be honest. Clients are looking for predictable economics, and they want services that enable their employees to stay on site and maximise the utilisation of the real estate set aside for staff dining. This is what's going to enable us to unlock value for clients.

Do value and cost mean the same thing? Absolutely not. We're not interested in getting into price and only price because that is not necessarily going to be what's going to give the client best value. One of the best conversations I've had was with a client who said: "We've gone too far on that line, we've ended up cutting too far."

If I had one disappointment in coming back to the UK, it was a fixation on the supply chain, and that was a genuine disappointment. Here's an industry that moved away from what the critical purpose was, which was to provide a good service for clients and their employees, and there was an incredible fixation around what was happening on the supply chain.

Do you mean rationalisation of supply chain? Or do you mean pricing of supply chain? Primarily, pricing. And we've done it to ourselves as an industry.

On recent site visits with Aramark, I saw a marked change - a more positive attitude and people enjoying their work. Why do you think this is? I think we've got a clarity of direction, a clarity of purpose that is understood throughout the organisation. We've encouraged our front-line teams to participate in shaping that, and shaping the solutions in the "go to market" propositions. We're investing heavily in training and developing, and our front-line teams feel as if they're winning. They're winning with their customers, they're looking at participation levels growing, they're seeing how cheque average is growing.

This is what we call "retail detail", rather than just looking at the profit and loss. You've talked about average cheque rising, customer satisfaction rising, "transaction numbers rising" - this is high-street language.

Absolutely. Our front-line teams all understand these things. They're the things that they can review on a daily basis.

Where do you see Aramark in two years' time? We are currently in year one of a five-year business plan. We're achieving in a number of areas. We're not achieving in all of them. We've still got a lot of work to do, but the foundation is in place.

How will people actually understand and recognise your growth in two years' time? For delivering on our promises, and for unlocking hitherto inaccessible value for our clients, through very focused customer-centric operating models.

And you said "unlocking hitherto inaccessible…" Do you think you're going to be making up ground where other people haven't? That's our mission, absolutely. And I think, for our employees, I fully believe that the brand will be recognised for a place where you truly can be yourself and that you're rewarded - both in terms of economic reward but also pure development rewards for delivering on expectations, and exceeding expectations.

Do you think there's still a role for the fine-dining sector within the contract catering industry? I absolutely do. Quite simply, our clients are still looking for that service, and understandably so. If you "peel back" to look at the purpose of fine dining within our clients' environments, invariably they're entertaining visitors or their own clients. It's a critical opportunity for them to showcase their organisation to their visitors or clients, and customers, so for me it's an absolutely key part of our business.

We've got wonderfully talented people such as Simon Warren [Aramark's executive chef]. We've also got the partnership with Gordon Ramsay, and that has been a great opportunity for many of our chefs to spend time working in his restaurants with his own brigade, and grabbing some of the finer points of fine dining in that environment. We're now extending that relationship with Gordon Ramsay to cover the front of house as well.

And that relationship with Gordon Ramsay works for you? It does. I think it's an evolving relationship and extending it to the front of house staff training is a further evidence of that.

Is fine dining a sector that you think Aramark is "famous for" in the UK at the moment? I think, in everything we do, we've got to be able to walk the talk, and the fact that we've got some terrific locations, where we can demonstrate to clients exactly what we're doing, is really the key for me.

I don't see fine dining as a stand-alone activity and it's not just in London. I know we've got many competitors, such as Compass, that make a point of having divisions that focus on fine dining, but I believe that the talent we've built within our business, and the accounts that we've got, will speak volumes. And, you know, we've been very successful in recent months in gaining business where fine dining is a key element of the service.

How do you find working with consultants in the UK compared with your experience in the USA? In the USA, they were far fewer than in Europe, and in actual fact many of our US clients still had a catering liaison position. In many respects, that eliminated the need for having a consultant involved.

Coming back to the UK, I've been very encouraged by the dialogues I've had with a number of the consultants here in the UK. The consultants play a key role in this industry, because of the lack of catering liaison officers in clients' organisations, so it's incumbent on my colleagues and me to ensure that we do share with you what's happening within our market - what our market propositions are - because in various situations clients are turning to the consultants to be their "intelligent partner" when making sourcing decisions.

What comments do you have on Aramark's recent privatisation and how this might affect your UK business? Well, first of all, our destiny is back in our own hands. When you look at the history of Aramark, we were in the private domain from 1984 through till 2001 and we were able to take the "long view" for our clients and our environment. And, for sure, that was one of the motivations for Joseph Neubauer, our chief executive. We felt that our ability was being hampered by the quarterly Wall Street reviews. So that, for us, is one of the appealing features.

The other thing for me is that our employees will have the opportunity of developing a career in a very joined up, global organisation. In the past 12 months, more than 30 of our management team, including front-line managers, have been involved in international assignments.

We're very much focused on leveraging best practices across our businesses.

Andrew Main CV Born in Scotland, Main held management positions with Grand Metropolitan (which became Compass), Scottish & Newcastle Breweries and Universal Ogden Services, which was acquired by Sodexho in 1997.

He joined Aramark UK in 1994 as divisional director for Scotland and offshore operations, moving in 2000 to the role of managing director of specialist markets. Two years later, he relocated to the USA as executive vice-president of the parent company's business services division, and was promoted to president in 2003.

He took over from Bill Toner as chief executive of Aramark in the UK in February 2005.

• Age: 44
• Home: Walton, Surrey
• Status: married, two sons, one daughter
• Education: Napier College, Edinburgh; Strathclyde Graduate Business School
• Leisure pursuits: tennis, swimming, cycling
• Favourite restaurants: Langans, Piccadilly; Le Pont de la Tour, Butlers Wharf (both London)
• Favourite hotel: Four Seasons Resort Aviara, Carlsbad, California
• Favourite music: Andrea Bocelli
• Favourite films: Local Hero, Cinderalla Man