Encore awarded £4.3m Glasgow ‘supercollege' catering contract
Encore Hospitality Services has won a £4.8m catering contract with City of Glasgow College.
The four-year deal was awarded following a competitive tender that Encore said involved "30 of the world's largest catering companies".
Encore will operate all catering outlets for students and staff in existing buildings that the ‘supercollege' inherited when it was formed from three previous establishments. The caterer will also service outlets in the ‘super campus' that is about to be built.
Cordia managing director David Melvin (pictured), said: "Make no mistake about it, this is a significant contract on a UK scale that was firmly on the radar of the biggest catering companies in the business.
"These companies brought their considerable resources to bear in a bid to take this work, and it is an outstanding achievement to have won it against such competition."
Encore already runs all catering operations at nearby Caledonian University, where it has been the provider for the last 12 years, having won three successive contracts.
In that period, Melvin said the company has grown the catering operation at Caledonian by 120%, and the target for growth at City of Glasgow College is 30-40% over four years.
The caterer will deliver foodservce to around 50,000 students and members of staff each day across the two education contracts.
Encore is the corporate catering and hospitality business of Cordia, the arm's-length company formed by Glasgow City Council to run its frontline services, while being free to source private sector contracts.
Melvin said: "We are about retaining what's best in the public sector, but we also have the best commercial acumen. It is a ‘third way', the best of both worlds, and I believe that makes us even better at what we do.
"Our staff are Glaswegians, and we play a major part in keeping local people in employment, paying the city's recognised Living Wage as a minimum requirement."
By Janie Manzoori-Stamford
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