30th June 2009
Dear All,
As you are all aware, last year Compass Group SA scooped the highly prestigious three year foodservice contract for JSE-listed Absa Group, one of South Africa’s largest financial services groups and a subsidiary of Barclays Bank PLC.
Part of this process involved upgrading the ABSA Towers North Food Court in Johannesburg.
The objective of the upgrade was to bring the facilities in line with the Barclays global benchmark and included the introduction of a coffee shop, selected high street brands as well as Balanced Choices, the exclusive Compass health brand for the Business and Industry sector. Other objectives of the revamp were to offer more freedom and variety of choice to customers, controlled portion size, better value for money and to give the staff an opportunity to pay for what they want at affordable prices.
The most challenging issue in these economical times and with food costs escalating at over 14%, was to address the food prices. We have managed to do this and customers have already noticed these reductions in the cost of meals.
The introduction of the whole dining experience has been highly successful and has significantly increased participation from employees. The next step is to look at a convenience store in the staff area, and develop a Wiesenhof coffee shop in the ex Rennies space.
The roll out by our Compass Projects & Design Team during the upgrade of the ABSA Towers North staff restaurant was crucial. Some of their responsibilities involved the design and construction of a more diverse menu selection for ABSA employees in order to improve the participation rate. The team had to work according to tight deadlines and a restricted budget, but managed to complete the entire process effectively, professionally and timeously.Well done to Allen Rheeder, Nuno Teixeira, the Senior Project Manager, Corrie Jonker – Design Manager and their team who have
driven this dramatic increase in turnover. The team have received nothing but positive feedback from the 6 500 ABSA staff that frequent the food court each day.
Monwabisi Kalawe


