Bill Downie of Meiko with Peter Horsey and Lucy Alexander

Public Sector Award Winner 2007

2nd May 2007, 4:31pm

Sponsored by Meiko

MacLellan (Interserve)
HM Revenue & Customs

Although a relative newcomer to the contracted catering market MacLellan, part of Interserve plc, now runs the UK's fourth largest outsourced catering service at HM Revenue & Customs/Department for Work and Pensions where it provides more than a quarter of a million meals a week to 17,500 civil servants and visitors across four sites. Drawing on its expertise in streamlining processes, MacLellan took over from a number of different providers two years ago to provide a unified service with common portion sizes, quality and prices. It has achieved this plus a 5% increase in use of the facilities despite the fact the client has been in the process of moving into new buildings and closing old ones over that period and has also withdrawn the substantial subsidy that was in place until recently. Among the special features of the MacLellan service are the provision of catering for two on-site nurseries where specially trained chefs work on feeding the very young.