MAGAZINE

If you’re in the mood for a splash of somewhat anomalous good financial news, the latest Contract Catering Tracker from CGA by NIQ and Bidfood dropped just as we were going to print. And it revealed that caterers’ sales grew by 12% year-on-year during the final quarter of last year.

This impressive performance comes against the backdrop of increases of 7%, 10% and 7% across the three previous quarters, making it the highest growth of the year. In further good news, this means that caterers have now increased sales year-on-year in every quarter since mid-2021, when venues were reopening following the pandemic restrictions.

Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, commented: “The sector continues to drive impressive growth despite ongoing cost pressures. However, these pressures will only intensify in April when £34bn of cost hits the sector, and we’re urging the government to delay the changes to the employer National Insurance Contributions threshold.

“We’re also raising the urgent need for government to overhaul school meals and increase the per-meal funding allowance. This will help to rectify the situation many caterers are facing where funding for provision has dropped dramatically and now lags significantly behind key input costs such as labour and food.”

For more on the former, turn to Nicholls’ column on page 50. And for the latter, turn to the report on our annual Big School Meals Debate on page 18.