Your One-stop-shop Solution for Logistics

While school administrations may be well versed in the logistics of an intra-school environment – such as arranging the timely movement of students and educational supplies – the logistics of setting up an entirely new school catering department are another unique issue altogether.  

The Modern Marketplace

The first thing you must understand is a school’s position within the marketplace. Professional boarding school catering providers and other large conglomerates have the ability to negotiate more compelling contracts via their size and buying power. The negotiation of these large-scale wholesale contracts is how major school catering companies manage to make large-scale purchases affordable. By stark contrast, an individual school administration will likely result in being charged substantially higher rates by wholesalers who may otherwise simply not bother engaging with your administration for fear of minimal return on investment. gather’s Procurement Team has connections that span the entire catering industry, and more than twenty years of experience with which to deliver your school the most cost-effective solution every time.  Contracts also represent a new layer of administrative workload that needs to be considered before attempting your own catering. Working with gather completely removes these difficulties from the equation; once we’re partnered with a client, we handle procurement all the way from the farm to plate. 

Administration & Iteration 

School administrations must carefully consider a number of immediate issues that are present on the administrative side of logistics. Some of the things to keep in mind are:

• Does your administration have anyone on staff that is suitably qualified to negotiate business deals with larger wholesalers and suppliers? 
• Should these negotiations prove successful, are these staff qualified to draw up contracts? If not, are you going to trust that a provided contract is the best possible deal? 
• If the supply contract runs it’s course smoothly, is your administration prepared to enter the renegotiation phase and assert your own desired changes? 
• In search of the best value for money, it’s unlikely that your school will be operating just one of these contracts, either; do you have sufficient administrative staff at hand to handle these contracts? 

As these begin to stack up you may find yourself either needing additional administrative staff to handle the workload, or needing to dedicate part of your canteen catering staff to handling paperwork. 

It’s also important to consider the fragile nature of long and winding supply chains. As we’ve all had the misfortune of seeing recently, numerous factors can wreak havoc on the supply chains that support so much of our modern lives. It’s important that you carefully choose providers with robust supply and reliable performance in mind, or you may find yourself plagued with issues should something as small as a mechanical issue or as large as a pandemic bring a halt to your deliveries.

Short, Sharp, and Painless 

By comparison, the logistics of boarding school catering with a professional education catering company are remarkably painless. gather’s supply chain is one of the most diverse and flexible on the market, proven resilient by surviving pandemics and back-to-back natural disasters, all backed up by a well-trained and well-supplied team that are always eager to help.  

gather calls upon suppliers from across the nation when tailoring our catering plan to your school. Our diverse menus are built from fresh fruits from morco fresh, refreshing spring water supplied by the Indigenous owned and operated Waddi Group, and high quality fresh cuts prepared by Wilga Meats from New South Wales – alongside many, many more. The suppliers we use for your school will be carefully selected based on your location and needs to provide the best dining experience possible for your students.