Elsevier is the world’s leading publisher of science and health information and serves more than 30 million scientists, students and health and information professionals globally. Staff welfare is a key factor in the company and Elsevier and its sister companies have had a relationship with Elior  for over 14 years, covering  a complete range of hospitality  and catering services to four of the company’s sites in the UK.

New tender

In the summer of 2010, the five-year catering services contract was coming to an end and was duly put out to tender as a business requirement of the procurement team and a procedure designed to ensure best value for money from the contract. Elsevier worked with an independent catering consultant to make the tender process rigorous, fair and transparent, and assist the procurement team in ensuring the company was getting the best possible deal in the current market conditions.

Unanimous choice

Cathy Burgess, UK Facilities Manager at Elsevier, explains: “A number of medium and large-sized catering contractors were involved in the pitching process, but at the end of the tender it was a unanimous decision that Elior should be retained as the hospitality and catering services contractor for the next five years.”The Elior tender was fresh, innovative and a great fit for our business. It actually decreased our costs, whilst maintaining prices at the same rate for our staff and customers. “

Quickly delivered

Cathy revealed: “Once we had reappointed Elior, I wanted to see a steep change in performance and to ensure that their new proposal was quickly delivered into our sites. They really impressed us with their introduction of the innovative business approach. They quickly appointed a new project manager to drive the changes through to all of our sites, effectively re-mobilising the contract.”

Performance Management

“From a management viewpoint, I really like the RAPPORT performance management system that was introduced," explains Cathy. "This has further underlined and embedded the focus on fresh food and innovation, and has provided a positive structure and discipline to the contract management mechanism.”

Communication

Cathy summarised: “During the first two months of our new contract, the performance management system has really paid dividends by ensuring allotted actions are completed promptly. A significant factor in the success is that the communications work really well from local level right up to our operations director. Elior took time to work with the existing catering staff to ensure they understood the latest offer and trained and “refreshed” them into the newly introduced concept”.

Confidence

Cathy concluded: “I have complete confidence that Elior will continue to develop and improve their service to us as we work in partnership with them to make the new project a complete success and I would certainly recommend the company as a catering service provider.”