Luton Sixth Form College ~ Catering tender

The successful Supplier will be required to provide catering services for Luton Sixth Form College. Luton Sixth Form College is the oldest sixth form College in the country (est.1966), and has a reputation as one of the top performing Colleges in the UK. It is also one of the largest and has over three thousand (2022/23 3,070) 16-19 year olds, with around 70% being from BME groups. Typically there will be 1600 – 1800 of these students on site on any given day. The current premises were built in 2010, giving a modern feel to both kitchen and front of house services, the scope of which includes coffee Bar, main restaurant servery and food shop/ outlet. The catering service also provides hospitality and events on an ad hoc basis. Current F&B turnover is just under £500k per annum delivered by a team of 11 staff, including two full time managers – GM and Head chef.

• The College expects the successful Supplier to meet the needs of their students and staff. 16–19-year-old students are responsive to “fast grab and go” food, prepared to order and to branded foods.
• The College management team want the College to be an exciting and interesting place for our students, and believe an innovative food supplier will be able to deliver a provision which feels mature, current and above all have a different look and feel to school experience.
• The Supplier will enable the continued development of catering through the provision of an innovative, student lead food offering being prepared on-site.
• The College expects the successful Supplier to evidence, through their bid, how they shall support and complement its values and provide a stimulating and relevant offer to students, reflecting high street offers that are fresh tasty and healthy. The College are continually seeking ways to improve and develop the ethos and environment for pupils and staff, to give them the facilities they deserve and need to meet the food service challenges of the 21st Century, any consideration regarding inward capital investment as part of the Supplier’s tender submission would be welcomed. The existing facilities are good with functioning and well-maintained core equipment, and College stakeholders suspect that a fourth food service outlet (perhaps in a container outside with a seasonal pop-up type variety of offers) would have ability to capture additional spend without compromising existing spending habits. Funding wise – the provision of this potential additional facility is not necessarily down to the Supplier, but assuming that the facility is there, there will be the opportunity to identify a supplier’s operating method and quantify additional return in the bidder’s requirement documentation at ITT stage. The College are interested in how service providers use of technology to help attract students to the offer and build loyalty. The College would also welcome bidders to create an as environmentally friendly provision as possible. The College would like the new contract to give as much cost certainty as possible, through potential guaranteeing maximum key cost lines, cost of labour, management fee and elements of sundry spend, or indeed via a guaranteed return. The core objectives of the College for the catering service are as follows:
• To provide a food offer that engages, fuels and inspires students and staff with quality and consistency.
• To find a service partner that proactively develops the menu and the financial model that the service generates
• To develop the skills, competence and confidence of the loyal existing workforce to help raise quality and drive standards and consistency across the service offers Full details in relation to Luton Sixth Form College can be found at Luton Sixth Form College - Home (lutonsfc.ac.uk) Due to the geography and the demographic of the College, chicken products sold on College premises is subject to Halal - HMC accreditation. See SQ document for further details.