CH&Co acquires Gather & Gather

CH&Co has announced the acquisition of Gather & Gather and Creativevents from Mitie.

The caterer said that bringing the workplace caterer and events business into its growing portfolio would increase turnover by £137m.

The deal will see catering continue to be supplied to Mitie by Gather and Gather under an exclusive partnership agreement.

In Mitie's latest results, for the year to 31 March 2019, its catering division delivered turnover of £136m and a profit before tax of £5.2m. It said at the time that growth in Gather and Gather had been offset by weaker performance at Creativevents.

The business operate across 330 site and have 3,600 employees.

Allister Richards, the man credited with the success of the business since its rebrand to Gather and Gather in 2013, will continue in his role as managing director.

As part of the deal with CH&Co it will continue to provide catering services to Mitie's Integrated Facilities Management (IFM) clients under a strategic partnership agreement while building on its success on other sectors. It recently qualified onto the London Purchasing Consortium, the largest higher education purchasing consortium in the UK and as a result won a £10m three-year deal with Edinburgh College, it's first in the sector.

"We also welcome a significant number of new clients to our family and we've gained a footprint in Ireland. It's very much business as usual for all parties involved; the Gather & Gather name will be maintained, and clients will still deal with the same people as they do today."

Richards added: "It has been a great pleasure to build this business over the last seven years and I'm so proud that our committed team now delivers exceptional food and drink to more than 250,000 customers daily across workplaces, historic venues and large outdoor events.

"Our growth has been fuelled by a determination to do things our own way, and to serve our customers in a style that better reflects modern tastes and expectations. To do this we have focused our efforts on our wellbeing programmes, inspiring collaborations such as our Gathered Table initiative, new technologies and of course our people, without whom none of this would be possible.

"Mitie's input and support has been fantastic throughout, and we look forward to continuing working with them closely as a strategic partner."