Chartwells retains £65m contract with West Sussex County Council
Compass Group UK & Ireland's education business, Chartwells, has retained its school meals catering contract with West Sussex County Council for another five years in a deal worth £13m annually.
Chartwells has delivered catering for the local authority since 2006 and under the new contract the 650-strong team will continue to provide services to more than 200 schools.
The contract will run for an initial five years, with the option to extend for a further five years.
As part of the contract award Chartwells will implement its "Eat Right, Stay Bright" programme to engage with pupils, staff and parents. The scheme, which has been previously tried and tested in Isle of Wight schools, has seen school meal uptake increase by up to 20%.
Lisa Bradstock, business director for Chartwells Local Authorities said: "Chartwells has worked hard to deliver a great catering offer for schools in West Sussex. We are delighted to be able to further our relationship with the council and continue to provide healthy and balanced school meals, and are looking forward to providing support for children, parents and teachers about healthy eating, throughout the county."
John Figgins, county catering service manager at West Sussex County Council added: "We are very proud to have been commended by Public Health England recently for our work on sugar reduction that has been achieved while still developing the school meal offer to remain interesting and exciting for our children.
"This contract has many new features that focus on food quality, as well as social value to our residents and adds huge steps towards the council's target of a 50% reduction in carbon over the next 10 years."
As well as generating eight apprenticeships in the contract annually, Chartwells will be recruiting two graduate posts to support the contract's added-value initiatives.
Chartwells works with more than 2,300 education units including primary schools, secondary schools, academy schools, independent schools, colleges and universities.
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