12 . Glasgow Business July/August 2013


Cordia Services becomes latest Platinum Partner


C


ordia Services has become Glasgow Chamber of Commerce’s latest


Platinum Partner. Set up four years ago by


Glasgow City Council as its largest arm’s length external organisation, Cordia employs more than 7,000 staff – 82 per cent of whom live within the Glasgow boundary, contributing greatly to the city’s economy. Cordia provides a wide range


of facilities management services, including cleaning, catering, janitorial and security for public sector, local government and private sector organisations. It operates the Fuel Zone


service in all Glasgow primary and secondary schools, catering for 72,000 children every day. It is also the largest provider of home care in Scotland. Cordia’s most recent figures


showed a profit of £5.8m on a turnover of £142.0m – allowing it to issue a return of £3.6m to its principal customer, Glasgow City Council. Te company has now


unveiled plans to capture a bigger slice of work from the private sector. A prime example of this is that Cordia’s contract catering subsidiary Encore Hospitality Services recently won the £4.1m, two and a half year catering contract at City of Glasgow College, another of Glasgow Chamber’s Platinum Partners. Encore already runs all


catering operations at nearby Glasgow Caledonian University, where it has been the provider for the last 12 years, and between these education establishments, it caters for in excess of 50,000 students and staff on a daily basis. Encore provides catering at


many of the city’s main tourism and leisure atractions, including Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Glasgow Royal


David Melvin,


Managing Director, Cordia


Concert Hall, the Tramway Teatre, GOMA, the Old Fruitmarket and Glasgow Warriors’ Scotstoun rugby stadium. Catering is also provided at the Emirates Arena, and Encore’s operation at the Emirates Café recently gained the Soil Association’s Food For Life Gold Mark for healthy eating – the first leisure facility in the UK to do so. Cordia Managing Director


David Melvin said: “Te biggest catering companies in the business brought their considerable resources to bear in a bid to take the City of Glasgow College work, and it is an outstanding achievement to have


Andy Clark,


Finance Director, Cordia


won it against such competition. It shows recognition of the highly innovative approach we have brought to the table, and of our growing reputation.” A process of innovation is at


the centre of Cordia, and the company recently introduced two new services – the installation and maintenance of stairliſts for six local authorities and a new translation and interpretation service, known as Cordia Linguistics. Tese ventures already turnover £4.1m and are forecast to grow in the next year. Te stairliſt service is just one


part of the operation of EquipU – a service responsible for providing,


Encore, a Cordia subsidiary, runs


catering services across the city


delivering and installing a range of disability equipment supplied by health and social work services to disabled people living at home. EquipU has achieved a turnover of £10.5m, despite a challenging economic environment for local authorities and health boards. Cordia’s Finance Director


Andy Clark said: “While the largest proportion of our work will always be from the public sector, it is now part of our business plan to extend our reach into the private sector and explore new business opportunities. “Regular engagement with


Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, with its membership, contacts and networking opportunities, is an obvious way to access these opportunities and we are excited about joining its family of Platinum Partners. “We also look forward to


our senior managers and staff in general accessing the excellent training on offer.”


FIND OUT MORE...


To find out more about Cordia, visit www.cordia.co.uk


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