Caterlink has scooped a five-year contract with The Isle of Anglesey County Council which starts on 1 September. The Reading-based company will prepare meals for the Island's 48 primary schools, five secondary schools and one special school.
Under existing employment legislation, school catering staff (currently employed by Eden Foodservice) will automatically transfer onto the Caterlink payroll under their present terms of employment. Schools and catering staff have already been reassured that no jobs are at risk.
Following a lengthy and robust competitive tender process, an evaluation panel made up of senior councillors, officers, head teacher representatives and the Council's independent catering consultant was unanimous in awarding the new contract to Caterlink Ltd.
The decision was also backed by pupil representatives from all five secondary schools who were invited to join in a special food tasting event.
Anglesey Director of Lifelong Learning, Dr Gwynne Jones, said, 'Throughout the tendering process Caterlink clearly demonstrated its ability to deliver even further improvements in this important service, offering healthy and nutritious meals, more local procurement, better flexibility and choice, strong operational standards and financial stability - all aimed at increasing benefits for Anglesey school children.'
He added, 'We'd like to thank our current catering contractor, Eden Foodservice, for all their hard work in raising the standards of school meals during the past five years. I would like to stress that our decision to change provider does not indicate any element of poor or unsatisfactory performance in respect of our current provider.'