Compass Group UK & Ireland celebrate exceptional suppliers at annual event

Compass Group UK & Ireland, the UK’s largest food and support services company, held its annual Supplier Conference at the ExCel Exhibition Centre last week.

The event, which included a Supplier Expo, saw approximately 360 attendees, from 250 different suppliers.

Held on September 21 and 22, the conference included presentations, sector workshops and a Supplier Expo where over 150 suppliers presented products and services to a wide range of attendees. A gala dinner and awards ceremony was also held, which was hosted by comedian Dara O Briain. The ceremony provided an opportunity for the company to recognise and celebrate the excellent contribution its suppliers have made to the business in the previous year.

Altogether, eight awards were handed out on the evening and winners included specialist fine food company, Harvey & Brockless, who won the Supplier of the Year award and Winnow Solutions who picked up the Corporate Responsibility Award.

The Supplier Conference provides suppliers with insight into the business and what Compass Group has planned for the year ahead. As well as hearing from the organisation’s executive team, suppliers were given a presentation by Duncan Gray, Head of Corporate Responsibility, on why sustainability is at the core of the business. The talk outlined Compass Group’s position on the Sustainable Fish Cities Pledge and its commitment to source 100% cage free eggs by 2025.

Compass Group UK & Ireland’s HR Director, Fiona Ryland, also outlined two of the company’s key initiatives: Women in Food – the business is working to increase its number of female chefs from 36% to 50% by 2020; and its apprenticeship scheme - which is aiming to create 1500 apprenticeships by the end of 2017.

Oliver Cock, Managing Director of Foodbuy, part of Compass Group UK & Ireland, said:
“Maintaining and developing long-term partnerships with our suppliers is key to our business. The conference was a huge success and a great way to give our suppliers an insight into what is taking place and coming up at Compass Group.

“The awards evening gave us the opportunity to celebrate and recognise our exceptional array of suppliers and I would like to congratulate all our winners for going above and beyond to provide outstanding service and products across the board.”

Simon Yorke, Sales Director, Harvey & Brockless added:
“Compass Group is such an important customer and it is amazing that they have named us ‘Supplier of the Year’. Every member of the team has been instrumental in achieving this success – from the warehouse, production and sales teams through to accounts, purchasing, transport and technical – this universal involvement across the whole team makes it really worth celebrating. A huge ‘thank you’ to everyone that has played a part! It is enormously satisfying when our hard work pays off, and this award demonstrates that our customers value the extra support the team at Harvey & Brockless deliver.”

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For more information contact:
UK Communications Team
Compass Group UK & Ireland
Uk.communications@compass-group.co.uk
01895 554 999

For further information about Foodbuy, please go to www.foodbuy.eu