Catering services

Tender description

The University is seeking a catering contractor for the provision of Catering Services for its Sunderland campuses commencing August 2018. The contract will also be available to our subsidiary companies and affiliated brands and to the University of Sunderland Students Union. The University of Sunderland is looking to enhance the student experience through the development of the catering and social spaces on campus and is therefore undertaking a tender exercise to find a caterer who can support this vision. The emphasis of this tender is to consider the appointment of an appropriately qualified company who have an innovative approach to both service delivery and brand and capital refresh programme throughout the life of the contract. It is recognised that catering is a specialist activity and therefore we are seeking a competent contractor to operate a range of services across the Sunderland Campuses including; catering outlets, retail provision, hospitality provision and vending services. It is expected the expertise of the caterer will ensure the provision of high quality, value for money and financially viable catering services. The University has 2 campuses in Sunderland with 11 000 students and 1 300 staff on campus. There are potentially 10 catering outlets and 38 vending machines across the two sites providing an approximate annual turnover of circa 2 300 000. For the purpose of this tender award and subsequent services which may be connected with the original award we reserve the right to spend a further 100 % of the anticipated spend for the University of Sunderland and all organisations listed above. The customer base is varied, in addition to catering for a diverse range of students and staff, one of the potential outlets is within a public visitor attraction operating on a daily basis throughout the year and another new outlet is located within a new building, Hope Street Xchange, a business centre on the University Campus. It is expected that the successful company will support the University by providing an imaginative and dynamic food service in an environment that encourages and stimulates vibrancy on campus. Given this will require significant investment, the University is offering up to a 10 year contract. Note that not all outlets are part of existing outsourced catering service. The University reserves the right to alter the provision dependent on market forces over the lifetime of the contract and the associated.catering outlets.