Chartwells chalks up £8m Anglesey schools contract

Chartwells, the education catering arm of Compass Group, has been awarded an £8m, five-year contract with Anglesey County Council to cater for more than 9,500 pupils across the island’s 39 primary schools, five secondary schools and one special needs school.

Chartwells will launch its new menus across the primary schools in September. Some menus have been created in collaboration with chef and Leon co-founder Allegra McEvedy alongside Chartwells’ chefs and its team of nutritionists, for ‘Chef Allegra’s Takeover Tuesdays’.

Retendering the contract has provided financial savings, some of which will be used by the council’s executive to further subsidise the cost of primary school meals. From 1 September the cost of a meal will be reduced by 30p to £2.20.

The contract will be supported by the recently launched Compass Cymru – part of Compass Group UK & Ireland, that operates as a localised offering. The contract was previously held by Caterlink.

Anglesey’s education portfolio holder, councillor Meirion Jones, said: “We are pleased to award the contract to Chartwells following a lengthy and robust competitive tender process. The evaluation panel was made up of council officers, head teachers representatives and an independent catering consultant. This is an important new contract which will ensure that our pupils and staff continue to receive a healthy and wholesome school meal.”

Charlie Brown, managing director of Chartwells, said: “We are delighted to be working with Anglesey County Council to deliver school meals to the children of Anglesey. We are passionate that every child has access to nutritious food. We welcome the council’s decision to subsidise the school meal offer, enabling many more families to access school lunch.

“We work hard to provide value for money and will also be supporting schools with access to information on nutrition and healthy eating, through lessons and demonstrations with our culinary teams, as well as additional learning materials.”

Chartwells works with around 2,000 schools across the UK. The group hit the headlines earlier this year after a free school meals parcel prime minister Boris Johnson described as "disgraceful" went viral.