Employees are increasingly telling their bosses that the dish of the day is no longer flavour of the month. We report on the UK boom in branded catering outlets that give staff more choice without leaving the building. We also looks at how different countries approach the working lunch.
In the days before concierge services and chill-out areas, the office canteen was the one perk most employees could count on.

Usually subsidised by the employer, canteens served stodgy but cheap fare at giant, Formica-topped tables. The service lasted the whole day, with canteen staff regularly refuelling workers at their desks with cuppas from the tea trolley.

The last few years have witnessed the demise of the traditional canteen. The humble cuppa has been replaced by its continental cousin, the caffe latte, while stable canteen fare, such as pie and chips, has been nudged off the menu by tuna mayonnaise and prawn baguettes. And the revolution isn't limited to the workplace; colleges and hospitals are following suit.

'The good old days of Betty slopping out the stuff are gone forever,' says Bill Vickers, marketing and food service director of Compass Group. 'Our customers in offices, schools and hospitals are the same people who shop at Sainsbury's and Tesco. They have the same expectations in any environment; they understand what is à la mode.'

The Compass portfolio of branded shops and restaurants includes Caffe Ritazza, Stopgap, Delimento and Trattoria. Clients include Addenbrooke's Hospital, the Abbey National and Powergen. In addition, sandwich brand Taste! has been rolled out to all sectors from business and industry to education and travel.

Vickers says customers expect a high level of service and quality food, no matter where they find themselves. Cash-rich, time-poor customers particularly rely on brands as an instant filter of quality.

Employees with more time on their hands also demand quality and good service when they sit down for a meal. And they expect a change of scenery, according to Beverley Tate, customer services director at Aramark. 'People work so hard and such long hours that when they are in a food environment, there has to be a change of image,' she says.

The Aramark portfolio comprises 13 brands, from coffee shop Java City to Mercato, a weigh and pay hot buffet. The company also operates 2-Go, a branded retail outlet for clients including Barclaycard and Royal&SunAlliance.

Tate believes customers are highly sensitive to brand values. 'Branding means consistency of image, food offer and service — all this gives the customer a perception of value for money.'

At Sodexho, brands director Ken Piercy agrees employees expect quality and consistency of service in the workplace. 'If you go shopping or to the cinema, there is an assumption that the food will be hot and tasty, the environment clean and the customer service good,' he says. 'In an office canteen, the steak and kidney pie could be good one day and bad the next. For most people, this experience is no longer the real world — they expect food to be good all the time. People want Starbucks and, if their office doesn't deliver, they will go to the high street.'

Mass defection from the office canteen is obviously unwelcome in terms of reduced profits. But more worrying for employers is that those who do not provide pleasant dining facilities, risk staff walking out of the building for more than just a caffe latte.

It's like going to the high street
The situation is not lost on facilities managers, who realise the provision of good quality, branded food is a way to steal a march in today's competitive market. At snack giant Walkers, a market research initiative into employees' food services preferences, led to the opening of Strollers, a Sodexho café concept, at its Theale site. Geoff Edmundson, facilities manager, says: 'By listening to and involving employees in the overall design, we have been able to meet their aspirations.'

Before the introduction of Strollers, Edmundson says the catering offer at Walkers was 'tired', revolving around a traditional 1990s fixed menu of a three-course hot lunch, salads and sandwich bar. 'Staff patronage was tempered more by hunger and a quiet stoicism than the desire to enjoy the food,' reflects Edmundson. 'But as a benchmark, the old world remains an ideal comparator to baseline all-round performance, progress and customer satisfaction.'

Edmundson adds that the Strollers café is driving a quiet revolution in employee eating habits with the introduction of freshly baked and filled baguettes, backed by vibrant branding and professional merchandising.

Sodexho's other clients include News International, JP Morgan, Chase Manhattan, British Aerospace, and King's College, St Mary's and Glasgow Royal hospitals. Its other brands include Caffé Toscana, Traditions, Pizza Gusta, Explorers and Just Trading — a 'grab and go' shop.

Last year, rival Compass installed its 'grab and go' concept Stopgap at the Abbey National's Glasgow headquarters, alongside Deli Bar, Café Select, Upper Crust, Trattoria and Profiles. The site provides food and drink facilities for over 2,500 staff.

'Staff who shop at Stopgap don't associate it with the company,' says John Wilson, facilities manager at Abbey National in Glasgow. 'It's like going to the high street, everything is easy and accessible. People like recognisable brands and all the marketing behind them.'

He adds that space at the building in Vincent Street is tight. 'Before the restaurant was refurbished, it was laid out like a school canteen. The idea was to create intimate areas for confidential meetings.'

At News International, the need to provide a more innovative catering offer resulted in a branded approach. In December 1998, the company worked with Sodexho to install Strollers, Just Trading, Caffé Toscana, Cranks, Pizza Gusta, Explorers and Traditions.

Nigel Buckland, facilities director at News International, says: 'We'd had the same space since 1986 and it was looking incredibly tired. A branded food offer provides staff with a broader spread of food. We have a diverse work group — our staff range from blue collar to senior executives.'

Buckland adds that the most popular venue for blue-collar workers is Traditions, which offers traditional British cooking, while editorial staff prefer Explorers, which serves global dishes such as Mexican fajitas and Caribbean jerk chicken.

Unlike the good old days of Betty and her legion of tea ladies, canteens are no longer subsidised and are under increasing pressure to make a profit. Added to this, companies are increasingly focusing on their core business. Bringing in brands as part of an outsourcing solution has become an attractive option for most facilities managers.

There are many benefits to this. Brands not only give staff what they want in terms of choice and quality, but because the client covers the cost of lighting and heating, a saving of around 15 per cent (against high street prices) can be passed on to staff.

Cost savings are clearly an added incentive to buy on site. By providing a branded catering offer, the employer is regarded as sensitive to employees' needs. This is not an exercise in touchy-feely politics — responsiveness is an important weapon in the war to attract and retain employers.

'As a country we are approaching full employment,' explains Vickers. 'Every single thing a client can do to attract staff is important. Catering is another way of being seen to be looking after the welfare of one's staff.'

Schools and hospitals too
Generosity aside, there is another, very real benefit of providing a branded catering offer. As Tate points out: 'One of the key drivers for most employers is for staff to remain on site. If employees have to go across the road for a coffee, 20 minutes may be lost to the company. If a branded facility is provided on site, it may be just five minutes.'

So are branded outlets taking over from old-style canteens? It appears so. In its 2001 contract catering survey, the British Hospitality Association reported that the number of branded outlets have increased from 173 in 1994 to 4,651 in 2000. However, one remnant from the old days — the tea trolley — is staging a surprise comeback. Bright and clearly branded, the modern trolley is a world away from the five-gallon tea urn on wheels.

Quadrant, for example, recently introduced Q-Express, its new generation of trolley.

Q-Express delivers a selection of hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, confectionery and hot food, including bacon and sausage rolls, to desk-bound office workers.

'The trolleys are very retail-orientated,' explains Sandra Kerton, operations director of Quadrant, which is jointly owned by the Royal Mail and Compass Group. 'In the past, people may have thought they were getting a downgraded service but, with the branded trolleys, the quality mimics that of the restaurant.'

Kerton says trolleys have been introduced at Weymouth Land Registry and the Stockport satellite of the Royal Mail. The Stockport office had no food service until Q-Express was introduced.

Kerton adds that Quadrant intends to link up with Compass brands, including Taste! and Upper Crust. 'Taste! has a high street image with very strong marketing behind the product. We are going to introduce Upper Crust into the Royal Mail corporate site in Old Street, London.

'There is a lot of competition through sandwich bars, but we can sell Upper Crust at a third of the regular price. It gives customers what they want.'

And what customers want, customers get whether they work in offices, factories, colleges or are visiting hospitals. Branded outlets are fast becoming the norm and where they have a choice, customers will always vote with their feet if the service provided does not meet their expectations. Smart employers, unwilling to be consigned the cold leftovers in terms of staff, are taking note.

lunching all over the world

The way in which a company treats its staff dining function is dictated by the culture of the country. And since food is the main focus of the day, much can be learnt about the business culture of a particular nation by the way employees spend their meal times. In America, for example, the staff canteen has all but vanished yet the provision of food has become a powerful bargaining chip in the battle to attract and retain employees. In Japan, unwritten rules govern who can and can’t use the office canteen, and in Sweden the staff dining room takes pole position when a new building is being designed. Maria Kyriacou, global head of property and services at Symbian, is attuned to the link between food and business culture. She is responsible for managing Symbian’s dining facilities in the US, Japan, Sweden and the UK. According to Kyriacou, most US software companies provide breakfast and lunch for employees, and an evening meal if they work later than 7pm. By midday, the receptionist will have been informed whether Thai, Chinese or Italian is required, the board room will have been prepared and employees will then sit down to a ‘family’ meal. ‘In the US, food is part of the business psyche,’ explains Kyriacou. ‘The philosophy is that business will almost certainly be discussed at meal times, so the company pays.’ Breakfast with the boss
This apparent bounty on the part of US employers is naturally grounded in a hard-edged business focus. ‘The employer gets a much more productive team,’ says Kyriacou. ‘If employees are coming into the office at 7.30am for breakfast and leaving after 7pm, you have people around all the time. There is also greater staff loyalty. Lunch is like a family meal — people talk to each other.’ Across the Pacific, business is the one topic the Japanese never discuss over a meal. Society is governed by a strict code of etiquette which can surprise many Westerners. ‘High-ranking staff use the canteen, but never secretaries,’ says Kyriacou. Inside the staff canteen, rice balls, noodles and sushi are the main dishes, with plastic models of the various choices displayed. Canteens are generally run by landlords and can appear quite outdated to westerners. Unusually, Japanese canteens are open to public servants wearing uniforms. Symbian employees could easily find themselves sharing rice balls with a policeman or fireman. In Sweden, the office canteen is ultra modern and always takes pride of place. Inside most canteens are banks of microwaves, plus a comfortable dining area. Kyriacou says at the Symbian site in Ronneby, fruit, bread and drinks are provided, but most staff prefer to bring in their own food and heat it up at work. On the walls of the dining area, white boards are provided for employees to write up bits of code if they feel suitably inspired. Symbian, which is a consortium of Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic and Psion, has its UK offices in Paddington, Cambridge and Waterloo. ‘Anything goes in Britain in terms of food,’ says Kyriacou. ‘It is such a melting pot of different cultures.’ In the Waterloo canteen, Halal meat is served and there is a variety of organic and wheat free products available. Calorie content is usually displayed on products. The canteen is operated by contractor Bayleaf, which operates an agreement with Costa Coffee to serve its products. Unlike the Japanese canteen, managing directors will sit next to secretaries and, since space is at a premium, meetings are often held over meals.

Pro-celebrity pastry-making

Celebrity chefs are encouraging contract caterers to reach for the culinary stars. Compass works with several celebrity chefs, including the Roux brothers, Pru Leith and Nick Nairn in Scotland. Bill Vickers, marketing services director, says these relationships illustrate Compass’ passion for food and people. ‘There is a real aspiration to work with the chefs, and the benefits flow back through the business.’ Sodexho has forged a strong relationship with Gary Rhodes. Together they have opened four restaurants — City Rhodes in London’s Chancery Lane, Rhodes in the Square (in London’s Dolphin Square) Rhodes and Co at Trafford Park in Manchester and Rhodes and Co at Jenners (the flagship department store in Edinburgh). Rhodes controls the menus and oversees the training of Sodexho chefs selected to work with him. Sodexho finances the restaurants, which support the core business. Simon Marshall, managing director of Sodexho’s hotels and commercial restaurants, says Sodexho chefs ‘relish’ the opportunity of working with the TV star. ‘Gary commands huge respect in the industry, particularly among young chefs. They look on him as a superstar — he is someone to aspire to. From our point of view, it is an opportunity to market ourselves and show the importance the contract catering industry places on food.’ Aramark’s principal celebrity chef is American Charlie Trotter, who has been voted as the best chef in world. ‘We send staff over to his restaurant Trotters in Chicago,’ says customer services director Beverley Tate. ‘Unlike other chefs, he is based at the restaurant all the time. Chefs are required to complete a course while they are with him.’ Tate, who co-ordinates the coursework with Trotters, says linking the business with celebrity chefs is not a marketing exercise. ‘Working with a celebrity chef can really motivate a team to aspire to higher levels of achievement. It is a big honour to be chosen to work with Charlie. Our chefs must have achieved a certain level — it’s an accolade to study with their mentor.’

Source

The Facilities Business