The Royal Society – Catering & Hospitality ITT tender advisory support

Assignment

GFG was invited by the Royal Society’s (TRS) to undertake a detailed review and provide professional advice prior to embarking on an ITT for catering & hospitality and conference services.

Due to the wide-ranging scope of the project, GFG approached the Litmus Partnership, an established consultancy that specialises in procurement and measuring catering services to support the project. As a result, GFG was successfully commissioned to undertake the project which consisted of the following four critical elements: –

• Undertake a benchmarking report of the Society’s total conferencing offer, in comparison to five other central similar size London venues.

• Review the current catering and hospitality services ‘contract’ specifications in compliance with industry standards and expectations.

• Conduct an independent audit and provide a report on ‘pricing’ within the current catering supply chain operated by the contractor.

• Undertake a SWOT analysis with key departmental heads for the upcoming catering and hospitality services tender.

The principal results of GFG’s findings

Below is a top-line overview of the findings reached from the work carried out over three months: –

• Benchmarking of the Royal Society’s venue pricing model – from a food & beverage perspective, RSA’s ‘price per head’ conference offer was slightly above average; however our consultants were impressed that they were using the latest seamless online technology giving instantaneous outline guideline budgets, based on individual meeting planners’ requirements.

• Current contract caterer’s hospitality services specifications review, key points identified: –
  –   The specification inadequately defined the required details necessary for the delivery of each of the services.
  –   There were no standards to measure compliance with the specification and delivery of each service.
  –   A future tender should be more commercially focused to benefit the RSA. i.e. a concession financial model with a Guaranteed Minimum Return (GMR)

• Current Catering Supply Chain pricing report – following our completion of an independent food and commodity benchmarking exercise we identified a significant and adverse price differentiation operated by the contractor, against a London market average.

Conclusions 

GFG outlined several recommendations for the Royal Society’s upcoming tender, which were: –

• Implement a new Service specification that reflected the current market trends
• Prepare new contract terms and conditions to ensure VAT rules are best applied to protect The Royal Society’s charitable status and certify compliance with current laws, regulations (TUPE), and contract obligations.
• Introduce a new trading/commercial model to ensure the Royal Society obtains the best financial benefit from the contractor’s supply chain discounts, which in turn will deliver further savings and improved margins.

Following our work GFG was retained to undertake a financial evaluation of the responses and then recommend which operator should be appointed.