CATERING MAKES £125,000 PROFIT A YEAR


One of our major sources of income is our catering operation. This was one of the first ventures that I indulged in and, since the beginning, it has exceeded the expectations of the business plan. The decision to take the catering in-house was not one of increasing income in the first instance, more that we were extremely dissatisfied with the catering provider and felt that the only way to ensure the standards we demanded was to do it ourselves. The kitchens had suffered from


a lack of investment and the staff were demotivated and lacked training. It was easy to see that there would need to be investment. We took advantage of funding that was available at the time, but we could have found grants to assist us otherwise. We decided that we wanted to employ a chef manager for industry. While the salary we could offer would not equate to what they could receive in the


hospitality sector, we could offer a better work-life balance, and we were inundated with applications. Having the chef manager has been crucial in growing the business, especially at the speed with which it took off! Soon after we started we were


approached by a local school asking if we could provide their pupils with meals, which got me thinking that perhaps we could roll this out further, which we duly did. We now deliver meals to four other schools as well as winning a tender to run a kitchen within a school. We are now a victim of our own success as our kitchens are at capacity and we have many schools asking for our services. When we took the provision


in-house we were happy for it to break even before staffing costs. The service now pays for all of the staff, equipment – including two leased vans – and provides a profit of over £125,000 a year.


catering provision ‘in house’. However, beware that while you will probably increase the quality of the provision in your own school, you will only start to realise prots if you begin to provide meals for other schools. The economies of scale can soon show a good return and with the continuation of free meals for all Key Stage 1 pupils, there has never been a better time to provide meals. For this venture you will have to speculate to accumulate, but it has many benets beyond those of just generating income and can be a resource that is utilised outside of school hours to generate even further income.


Skill up – and hire out – your staff We all know that our best, and most costly, resource is our staff. We have a highly qualied, multi-skilled and extremely practical workforce who could also generate valuable income


for our school. With the reduction of resources at Local Authority level there’s an opportunity here that shouldn’t be missed! As an example, I have introduced service level agreements (SLAs) for our local schools to provide the following services: business management, IT support, caretaking provision, careers guidance, marketing support, prospectus photography and design, and training. The income from this alone generates six-gure sums! We are also looking at increasing


these services to include HR management, payroll, health and safety, and property management, and are currently in discussions with providers of education welfare support and education psychologists on how we can successfully procure these services to sell on. Many schools will have an element


of human resource that they could ‘hire out’, however there may need to be some extra investment in


upskilling, and even enlarging, the workforce. This speculation will bring with it the accumulation both in income and by delivering a more knowledgeable and motivated staff that can work within, as well as outside, the school.


One-off activities Then there is what I call the ‘one- offs’; the things that you probably won’t do on a regular basis but that still generate income. I also refer to these activities as the ‘time thieves’ as the income generated probably doesn’t justify the time spent on organising and resourcing them. A prime example of this is a car


boot sale – these are extremely manpower-intensive, a health and safety nightmare and, I believe, should be avoided at all costs! The majority of these ‘one-offs’ should be left to the PTA to organise as, being a voluntary organisation, they can justify the time spent against the reward received. These one-off activities do have the added advantage of raising awareness of your school’s funding needs, while also helping your school engage with the wider community.


Work smarter, not harder.


FundEd has a wealth of


event-planning guides to make sure you get the best reward for your


efforts. Go to funded. org.uk/events.


FundEd AUTUMN 2017 17


IMAGES: LUPLUPME; MSMOLOKO; KATYAGRIB/THINKSTOCK.CO.UK


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