20 October 2010: Caterer & Hotelkeeper

Rather than an upsurge in bargain-hungry customers filling the staff dining rooms and helping operators to buck the recessionary trend, volume levels appear to have remained largely static.

"I really thought the recession would be good for staff restaurants," Chris Stern of Stern Consultancy says. "But what really skews the statistics is that most organisations cut their staff and made fewer customers available for in-house facilities. Maybe as a percentage of site population staff canteens have become busier but an increase in business has been hidden by the fact that there are fewer staff in the building."

The main priority of the customer witnessed by most - if not all - food service businesses, is value. Caterers are striving to demonstrate a perception of value for money to their customers in order to drive sales, but while the aim is the same the methods employed vary wildly.

Full article: http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2010/10/20/335560/tempting-customers-back-to-the-staff-canteen.htm