Lack of corporate caterers offers food for thought
Taking a coffee break is becoming an increasingly difficult task in Poland's burgeoning business environment. It's not that company bosses are being tight with their time, it's more a matter of scarcity employees often have nowhere to go.
Businesses and their landlords are becoming concerned about the lack of catering services available for employees. There are simply not enough catering companies or canteen operators to go around, according to property sources.
"There isn't a wide selection," said Graham Kilbane, project manager with Chelverton, the U.K.-based developer. Chelverton owns the Wisniowy Business Park in Warsaw and wanted to lease the space to a canteen operator. But after several months, the project still didn't have an operating cafeteria.
Only two caterers U.K.-owned Eurest and France's Sodexho operate a nationwide chain (see list). Both are international companies specializing in catering services for office buildings, factories, schools and hospitals. Eurest has 60 outlets in Poland, while Sodexho has 42 and plans another 200, the company said.
Other catering companies are generally small businesses operating canteens in office buildings. Most of these usually have only one or two locations.
Catering services in Poland still lag far behind those of the more developed markets, according to Miroslaw Aleksandrowicz, the commercial director with Eurest in Poland. "In developed markets there are more companies, but for some reason they are not in Poland yet," he said.
This tiny number of professional caters has severely limited the number of services businesses and landlords can use. "When we started then it wasn't a lot," said Rob Mathias, marketing director with Golub Polska, who believes landlords now have more choice. The company developed the Warsaw Financial Center and two years ago tried to hire a canteen operator with little success.
Likewise, when developer Globe Trade Centre (GTC) was looking for a canteen operator for its Mokotow Business park project in Warsaw two years ago, it could only choose between Eurest and Sodexho, said Zygmunt Chyla, marketing director with GTC. The company eventually opted for Sodexho. "There wasn't much choice," he said.
Since the number of caterers is so low, many landlords and businesses often have to subsidize canteen operators. "The big difficulty is that you have to fund the fit-out," Kilbane said. Chelverton eventually selected Sodexho for its canteen, but because of the lack of competition between caterers the property company will have to finance the caterer's fit-out. In developed markets, the catering company would normally do this themselves, Kilbane said.
Kilbane said that the reason for the lack of canteen operators is the lower purchasing power of Polish employees, who cannot afford to spend too much on food each day. "Margins on food are very low," Kilbane said.
Office buildings that want affordable canteens often have to subsidize them or at least significantly lower rents for canteen operators to allow them to have a small profit, Kilbane said. "(For landlords) it's not profit making, it's actually loss making," he said.
Mathias of Golub agreed: "They are not designed to be major profit makers, they are not traditional leases."
"Canteens increase the attractiveness of the building," said Aleksandrowicz of Eurest. "Having a canteen will eventually become a standard."
Some landlords offer space to a canteen free of charge, while others charge canteens the full commercial price, Aleksandrowicz said. But most canteen operators currently pay some rent, although they're partially subsidized by landlords or businesses hiring them, he said.
Lack of competition between catering companies not only increases costs for landlords, but is also responsible for the low quality of service, sources said. "In terms of number, the supply of catering firms seems to be sufficient, but in terms of quality and range of services, it is not nearly enough," said Wlodzimierz Kocon, property manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC has changed canteen operators several times since it moved to its office on Warsaw's ulica Nowogrodzka in 1997, Kocon said.
Kocon said it's been difficult finding caterers for PwC. "We are still not fully (satisfied)," he said. Chelverton's Kilbane agreed that the quality is not what it could be. He was considering hiring a small restaurant entrepreneur but later switched to Sodexho. "There is a risk in going with a smaller company," he said. One reason for Chelverton's choice was word of mouth. British American Tobacco (BAT) is a key tenant in its Wisniowy Business Park. BAT had previous dealings with Sodexho and was happy to use the company again.
Other landlords prefer small companies, however. Golub's Warsaw Financial Center hired Heaven on Seven, which is run by the owners of the Blue Cactus and Boathouse restaurants in Warsaw. "We wanted to have fun place to go," Mathias said.
