METRO - MAXIMISING SUPPLIER DISCOUNTS

July 2003

Graham Rossiter is Head of Catering and Cleaning for Metro Services, with its 120 primary and secondary schools within the Wirral area. The local authority upgraded to Saffron in May and is already experiencing the benefits.

He says: " We were one of the first authorities to apply an IT system to school meals some 12 years ago. At that time, competitive tendering was coming in and many authorities had never been in a contract situation before. After successfully bidding in open competition to run the school meals and cleaning services, it was essential to keep a tight control on our operating costs and this was when our long-standing relationship with Fretwell-Downing Hospitality began. When we were informed our original MICA system was coming to the end of its shelf life, we looked at the latest system, Saffron."

The decision to stay with Fretwell-Downing Hospitality was easy. "Its all about speed. Saffron helps us process invoices faster, because there is far less keying in involved. We process high volumes of invoices weekly and can pay suppliers speedily and benefit from greater price discounts. It has saved us money and this is one of the many reasons why we upgraded the system".

"Another useful feature of the system is that we used to cost standard recipes manually, but we can now do it automatically with Saffron. The system carries all the recipes, invoice and stock information, which it cross-references to provide automatic updates when markets fluctuate. It used to take a member of my team at least a couple of days a month to work through all the recipes, now it happens at the touch of a button."

Metro Services has devised a new style of school meals service in its primary schools, which is designed to encourage healthier eating styles amongst the young, improve current pupil uptake of free school meal entitlement and for the first time, offer parents who usually provide their child with a packed lunch the opportunity to purchase one. With the added business that is anticipated, Graham and his team are glad to have Saffron up and running ahead of the new school year in September.

Press Releases Home

Fretwell Downing Hospitality
Brincliffe House
861 Ecclesall Road
Sheffield
S11 7AE