Food and drink at Lakeside North Harbour – a 130-acre business office campus in Hampshire – has been given a new lease of life after leading contract caterer Elior UK took over the contract.
The new five-year contract will see Elior transform facilities at the existing Atrium Cafe (pictured), open a brand new cafe in Lakeside North Harbour’s Winter Garden, and provide hospitality services for in-house meetings and corporate functions.
Elior has made an investment as part of the contract to upgrade kitchen equipment, improve speed of service, and refurbish facilities – including the introduction of Elior’s high street-style coffee concepts Ground to Go and Barista & Baker.
The cafes will also offer a range of freshly made healthy Grab and Go options, as well a constantly rotating raft of sizzling street food concepts like Pizza Foundry, Heavenly Burger, Chu Global Flavours and the award-winning Beak St. Chicken.
Karen Tyrrell, client & communications manager at Lakeside North Harbour, said, “It’s important our cafes offer a delicious and varied choice of high quality food, and the breadth of Elior’s ranges was extremely impressive. We also loved the team’s creative fresh new look for our existing café and exciting design plans for the new Winter Garden Cafe.
'Elior’s online hospitality food ordering service provided in conjunction with Spoonfed – will also allow us, once operational, to meet occupiers’ requirements to cater for in-house meetings and corporate entertainment.”
The contract was awarded following a competitive tender process which included mystery shopping, market research, a Hospitality Focus group and an occupier feedback survey. The process held a particular focus on the provision of organic, seasonal, and locally produced food options that were considered healthy and nutritious as well as ethically and sustainably sourced.
Tyrrell added, “We have been extremely pleased with the way in which Elior has quickly made improvements to our food offerings. Another important factor for us when selecting a new operator was the company’s commitment to its staff, through ongoing support and training and recognising excellence.
'With our previous cafe operating in-house we felt reassured that all staff could transfer easily and therefore continue to deliver their already exceptional standards of service to all occupiers as part of this exciting new development.”