University of Sunderland - Catering Services - AWARD

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 two campuses in Sunderland with 11,000 students and 1,300 staff on campus. There are potentially 11 catering outlets and 38 vending machines across the two sites providing an annual turnover of circa 2.3 million.*

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 ten year contract.

*Note that not all outlets are part of existing outsourced catering service