EP Insights & Action

Going global
Chris Durant,
Senior Consultant at
The Litmus Partnership
explores the benefits
and challenges of global
catering contracts.
Can global catering operations
benefit from a common catering
policy and consistent approach
in spite of cultural and political
differences?
Effectively sourced, structured and
managed global contracts can
deliver a range of valuable benefits
to companies but while many global
organisations have talked about entering
into worldwide catering agreements,
relatively few have really progressed beyond
a vision. This is perhaps not surprising
given the challenges of cultural and political
differences (both external and internal),
differing regional and country laws and the
way in which employee and welfare benefits
are perceived.
Inevitably the more mature and
established European and US contract
catering markets, where outsourcing of
services is generally higher than many other
parts of the world, have moved away from
traditional staff catering models. Perhaps
the most significant feature in the UK is the
erosion of client subsidies and the growth (as
in the US) of nil subsidy contracts. This is in
striking contrast to many other countries.
In Europe, works councils representing
worker interests are common. They form
a strong part of German and French work
culture, requiring employers to consult on a
diverse range of workforce related matters,
including employee catering. The practical
implications for caterers are that planned
service changes may have to be agreed by
works councils first and delays can cost the
caterer or the client organisation money. In
Germany, for instance, the strength of works
councils makes the current high levels of
catering subsidy hard to reduce or remove.
Looking further afield, in Latin America,
employee catering is heavily subsidised.
In Brazil, it is estimated that over 10% of
workers receive vouchers to buy not only
meals at work but also everyday items like
childcare, fuel and supermarket products.
These vouchers are clearly seen as a major
welfare benefit and are 80% employer funded
or more, so nil-subsidy catering doesn’t even
register on the catering agenda. Despite this,
the South American foodservice market and
Brazil in particular is developing rapidly and
36 | Insights & Action | October 2017