"Should I stay or should I go" !!

Do I outsource my school catering to a contractor , or should we manage it ourselves ?

Is this the burning question that’s on your mind ?

When we are faced with a mountain of other problems, giving your catering to someone else to sort can seem like the “silver bullet” to all of your problems, and lets be honest, we would all like a silver bullet for the many problems that fill our in- box daily.

So, let me give you some snippets to help you decide, that you wont find through crawling the internet, because these are the secrets that no contract caterer wants you to know

First thing to remember is a Contract Caterer, is a business- in that they are in business to make money.They are not your friend, they don’t understand your particular school challenges, but they DO want to make money from you.

There is nothing wrong with making money, after all as school leaders, you are teaching the next generation of business leaders, to drive the economy and keep everything ticking along.

But the here and now, is a contract caterer wants your school because it can make them money !

So how does the contract caterer make money from your school

Simple- by selling more meals.- there you go, its that easy - my work is done !!!

BUT - Whereas a restaurant or café doesn’t know how many customers are coming through the door, a contract caterer does, they know how many, and at what time, and how much their customers are going to spend, for 5 days a week. That gives them Guaranteed income.

A busy secondary school could turnover over half a million in sales each year. Give them a few secondary schools and suddenly they are a business that has huge turnover.

The more turnover they have, the more they spend with their suppliers.

The supplier, will give them a better discount, if they spend more money.

But here is the real Kicker - That discount is very rarely applied to discounting your cost of food.

It goes as a separate payment direct to the contractor.

The more money they spend, the more they get back.

Does the contractor tell you how much they get back (very unlikely)

However.

A contractor brings with them expertise in running school meals, a team of managers who will take on your burdens, sort out you catering staff, sort out the sickness issues, recruits new staff provide the expertise to write menus, manage allergens, and leave you alone.

All of the operational risk sits with them. They will even invest their money by purchasing equipment and upgrades as part of the contract. If you want all the administration for collection of school money to sit with the contractor, they can sort that out for you as well.

If that’s what you want, then appoint a contractor.

Disadvantages

All of what they give you, isn’t free ?? – Did you think it was ?

They build in all the additional costs of operation into their price. They will have a greater control over the menu and are likely to want to promote what makes them more money – (particularly in a secondary school) – Although food standards exist, in many schools, contractors ignore the standards because they are not monitored.

Since Covid, many contractors have lost a lot of the really good operators, meaning that the area manager that you have may be inexperienced (cheaper for the contractor to employ) and may not deal with some of the problems that you as a school have.

There is a risk of declining quality and there is a disconnect between the catering staff and the school who are seen now as a contractor in the schools premises.

In some parts of the country, catering suppliers have now delved into the realm of managing school meals – (cutting out the contractor). They ask you to pay a service charge, then they push their products into your school- (of course keeping all of the benefits that the purchasing brings)

So what am I to do ??

What you want to do will be different for each school, and depends on your size of school, your budget, and priorities around school food.

Speak to another school or ask a contractor for a reference site that you can talk to, or speak with a catering consultant who can give you independent advice.

When you appoint a catering contractor , remember that you want a True Partner in your business relationship.

Dont be a passenger for their journey !!