Lexington dials into £15m BT workplace catering contract

Lexington has been appointed to oversee the workplace catering for 56 BT sites across the UK and some Openreach sites, with an annual contract value of £15m.

CBRE has contracted with BT to deliver outsourced services and partnered with Lexington.

Lexington plans to ‘digitise’ the food experience for BT’s 80,000 employees and visitors. This will see the company offer bespoke experiences in each of BT's eight ‘Better Workplace’ office locations, using technology to allow customers to order and pay across the catering operation, including out of hours through food lockers and digital only micro-markets operating 24/7.

In support of BT’s net zero commitments, Lexington will focus on incentivising customers to order low carbon dishes, reducing food waste and eliminating single-use plastics and paper cups.

The caterer has partnered with Olio to redistribute food waste across the portfolio and is working with social enterprise Change Please to provide financial support for homeless people through proceeds from artisanal coffees as well as trainee jobs at Better Workplace locations.

Lexington’s team of dieticians has created a series of events and workshops to highlight the importance of diet in wellbeing and performance. Covering topics including nutrition for children, pregnancy, mental wellbeing, stress and menopause, employees will receive newsletters, Q&A sessions and recipes. There will also be seasonal competitions, such as a MasterChef-style cook-off, pitting BT’s senior leaders against Lexington’s chef teams.

Neil Edmond, workplace director at BT, said: "Lexington is leading the way when it comes to achieving net zero commitments, so they’ve been a valuable ally, coming up with creative ways to work with local social enterprises, while reducing waste and carbon emissions.”

Mark Harris, alliance director at CBRE, said: “Catering is about food, service and people and we were very impressed by Lexington’s strategic plan to continue to drive this throughout BT’s UK office portfolio. Lexington were chosen for their award winning service training and desire to attract the best talent, as well as their innovative, nutritional and well balanced food and service offers."

Matt Wood, managing director at Lexington, added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for Lexington to make a big impact in BT’s workplace catering: reducing carbon emissions across UK operations, whilst improving employee experience through exciting, engaging and of course, delicious catering services.

"It’s great to work with such progressive companies; CBRE and BT and we’re enjoying getting stuck into the challenge, coming up with innovative and creative ways to help them achieve their goals.”