Education caterer Pabulum is proud to announce an impressive 27 new openings over the course of the last 12 months. The total value of the new contracts exceeds 15 million pounds, surpassing the caterer’s new business target by 24% for the year.
Pabulum believes its commitment to the next generation’s health and wellbeing combined with a strong commercial offer play a crucial part in this year’s success story. Managing Director, Nelson Williams explained:
“I’m incredibly proud of our success over the last year, to me it emphasises our two key differentiators, we are a fresh food company without compromise and strong commercial partners. We’re pleased to be working with some truly excellent schools who share our vision when it comes to food and the health and wellbeing of young people. We want to create a fresh food culture within schools, that’s why all our meals are produced on site, from scratch, using fresh, nutritionally balanced ingredients. We hope this will help inspire a lifelong love of fresh food in young people.”
Among the new business wins is the Tetherdown Consortium which includes nine primary schools in the Borough of Haringey, North London. The new three-year contract is worth 3.3 million pounds and will see Pabulum catering for over 3,300 pupils and staff. Pabulum, which uses 94% fresh food, attributes this impressive contract win to its fresh and healthy food offer and forming a strong relationship with leadership teams.
Williams continues:
“We have developed our primary offer to include the new Pabulum Dining Experience. This features a range of incremental service solutions and branding, which help make lunch time enjoyable and interactive, as well as educational for children. I am particularly pleased with our new feature wall design which can be utilised with the curriculum to learn for example where our food comes from. The first installation was at the Croydon Food Flagship School, Rockmount Primary.”
Pabulum, which operates within a 125-mile radius of its Fleet headquarters, primarily works with schools rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted and this latest round of new contract wins is no exception. The new contract wins include Backwell School in Bristol, which enjoys a reputation as one of Britain’s best performing comprehensive schools at GCSE and A Level, having been twice rated as outstanding by Ofsted. Blackfen School for Girls in Sidcup, Kent, is another academically successful school to choose Pabulum as its caterer, with a five-year contract worth 1.8 million pounds.
In addition to the number of new business wins this year, Pabulum is also celebrating the long term nature of several of the contracts, with many schools signing up for five year deals and one for seven years. Pabulum’s first seven-year contract began in April 2016 with Queens Park Community School in Brent, London NW6, where they are currently providing meals for over 1,200 children.
Pabulum’s innovations for secondary schools and A Level colleges have also been well received at a number of its new contract sites. These include a well-researched college offer for sixth form students called ‘Enjoy’ as well as a new hot sandwich bar concept and Pabulum’s own coffee shop brand ‘I Love Coffee’.
A continuing commitment to reducing granular white sugar use across its entire business also resonated with leadership teams at many of Pabulum’s new schools. Using its trademark ‘health by stealth’ method, Pabulum is working towards the goal of cutting sugar by over 50%. As part of this pledge, Executive Development Chef Jack Jepson-Sykes and his team have worked hard to make use of natural sugars and create a range of reduced sugar recipes for school menus.
Pabulum has a number of Multi-Academy Trust (MATs), contracts which have increased their own portfolio of schools. In partnership with those MATs, Pabulum has taken over the catering services of the new additional schools, improving and developing the offer accordingly.
Williams summarises:
“You can never stand still in this business and whilst our 93% retention rate is a remarkable achievement, we want to incrementally grow the business with high quality, longer term new contact wins. The cornerstones of our new business successes this year have been the way in which we’ve built relationships and truly understood the buying needs of both our customers and clients alike. In addition, we’ve made investments that have given a return and continued to innovate with new brands and food offers. To achieve a place in the Foodservice Growth Report as one of the top 20 fastest growing (by profits) independent foodservice companies in the UK is also testimony to an outstanding year.”
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