Register

To receive our newsletter, click below…

Poll

Hospitality Assured at Avenance Defence Contracts Division

14th May 2008, 10:47am

Avenance Defence Contracts Division (DCD), part of Elior UK, has achieved Hospitality Assured accreditation – the prestigious internationally recognised standard for service and business excellence in the hospitality industry, championed by the Institute of Hospitality.

John McEwen, Managing Director of Elior Defence Contracts, was presented with the DCD's Hospitality Assured certificate and plaque by Institute of Hospitality Chief Executive Philippe Rossiter FIH, at a presentation ceremony – recently held at Buckley Barracks, Hullavington, Wiltshire.

The Hospitality Assured accreditation was undertaken by a team of independent UKAS (The United Kingdom Accreditation Service) assessors from MQA Ltd, on behalf of the Institute of Hospitality.

Commenting on DCD's excellent achievement, Institute of Hospitality Chief Executive Philippe Rossiter FIH said: "In recent weeks, Avenance has secured Hospitality Assured accreditation for three very different aspects of its business portfolio: the City, Marks & Spencer, and Defence. In each of these assessments the Avenance teams have all scored very highly, and with similar scores. Given the challenging nature of the Hospitality Assured standard, this says much about the culture of customer service which is embedded throughout the whole company."

The Hospitality Assured assessment for the Avenance DCD covered hotel services, leisure and retail at 30 super multi-activity units located in the East Midlands and Kent, as well as a geographical area stretching from Gloucestershire to Cornwall for 43 Brigade.

At all these military units, DCD is responsible for everything from hotel services and catering to providing retail convenience stores, tailoring, facilities management such as ground maintenance, laundry and cleaning services.

John McEwen is delighted to have achieved Hospitality Assured. "The Standard is assisting us significantly in moving forward in our pursuit of continual improvement, as we seek bigger and better contracts," he said. "Hospitality Assured provides an excellent objective independent quality benchmark against which we can measure our performance on an annual basis. Its framework is also ideal for being bolted onto the back of quality standards such as Investors in People and ISO14001 environmental management systems."

Last month, DCD gained a contract with Norfolk Constabulary in a deal worth over £3 million – reflecting the company's aim to broaden its focus outside the defence market, targeting largely self-delivered facilities management contracts in the commercial and private sector.

In achieving Hospitality Assured, DCD joins an elite band an elite band of prestigious organisations that have achieved accreditation – including the world renowned hotel The Ritz, London, the flagship NHS Hospital Trust: Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Hospital Trust in London, leading leisure industry operation: Center Parcs; top conference and exhibition venue, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and Wyboston Lakes Business and Leisure Village in Bedfordshire.

Click here to submit a comment!

Have your say!

To comment on this article, simply enter your name and email and send us your views. Please note that your comment will appear publicly below this article once it has been processed. For enquiries please email info@costsectorcatering.co.uk.