Student deal gives sutcliffe fresh twist

By Helen Conway

Sutcliffe Catering is using a £1.5m-a-year facilities management contract at a college of further education to launch its latest in-house brand.

As part of the contract, which started earlier this month at Highbury College, Portsmouth, Sutcliffe has installed the brand, dubbed Oliver's, as part of a £300,000 overhaul of the refectory, partly funded by the college.

Sutcliffe has replaced the college's traditional straight-line counter service with a 350-seat food court featuring some of the company's other brands - Jackets no ties, Zefferelli's, Chef's Choice and Stripes American Diner.

Oliver's will offer the college's 12,000 students traditional English food such as hand-made sausages and deep-filled pies. The brand has been on trial for the past six months at Oxford Brookes Univer-sity, where it has proved popular with students, according to Keith Wain, Sutcliffe's reg-ional managing director for the south of England.

Sutcliffe is also offering a Chill Out section, selling sandwiches, and a kiosk shop.

Mr Wain said the company expected sales of around £600,000 a year from the Highbury contract, which had been awarded for five years.

Further education colleges formed an attractive market for expansion, said Mr Wain, because the business was high-volume, with contracts often awarded for five or six years.

"It is a market with different needs from the universities, as you get a wider cross-section of people. In universities, the average age of students is 23, but in further education colleges you have anyone from 16-year-olds doing A-levels, up to 60-year-olds."

Catering at the college was previously provided by Halliday Catering. Sutcliffe won the facilities management contract in July against competition from seven other firms.

As well as handling catering, the company looks after cleaning and technical services, such as setting up the training kitchen for cookery lessons.

The initial response from students has been positive.

Student's Union president Paul Thomas said: "The vibes are good. There is more choice. It's a lot cleaner and so far people are respecting the furniture. I tried a pizza and it was spot-on."