Welsh Government Catering Services Contract

Below is an over-view of the Client’s likely requirements which will be detailed and confirmed at tender.

The Client requires the Catering Services Contract to deliver positive economic and social benefits to Wales and services must be delivered with assured statutory compliance - particularly in respect of Food Safety legislation, Health and Safety Law and all other applicable legislation.

The service must reflect exemplary standards of catering industry best practice and must be operated with a management ethos of continuous improvement throughout the contract term whilst delivering best value for the Client and service users.

The contract must maximise resource efficiency (water; heat; power; waste management etc.) and sustainable practices – including support for locally procured food and local food producers; health and wellbeing and Fairtrade.

There are currently 4 office locations in scope for on-site catering services – Cardiff; Merthyr Tydfil; Aberystwyth and Llandudno Junction. The Client requires a café-style service offering a range of hot and cold ‘grab and go’ food and hot and cold beverages and hospitality catering services. There is also a limited / ad-hoc requirement for events and fine dining services mainly at the Client’s Cardiff location.

Whilst there remains some uncertainty about post-pandemic building occupancy numbers, for illustrative purposes the Client anticipates attendance at the 4 catered offices to be circa 50% of pre-pandemic numbers. On this basis, occupancy would be as follows - Cathays Park (1,300 staff); Merthyr Tydfil (280 staff); Aberystwyth (140 staff); Llandudno Junction (210 staff).

The Client also currently has 9 office locations without on-site catering facilities that will require a limited / ad-hoc hospitality food and beverage service. These offices are located in Caerphilly; Newport; Swansea; Carmarthen; Newtown; Llandrindod Wells; Wrexham; Caernarfon and London.

Services provided through the contract must be fully compliant with the Welsh Government’s Welsh Language Scheme. In particular, the contractor will be required to ensure that in all dealings with the public, Welsh and English languages must be treated on the basis of equality - including ensuring that all menu and promotional material, customer surveys and any other information or hospitality booking system content, whether provided in hard copy or through any electronic medium, are fully bilingual.

Security vetting clearance will be required for all contractor personnel engaged in the delivery of the contracted services.

The contract will also include the provision of maintenance services for Client owned coffee machines (semi-automatic bean to cup and barista machines).