Foodservice buying and marketing group, Caterforce, has announced it is predicting record turnover in excess of £600m by 2021.
The announcement was made by current Caterforce interim Managing Director, Gary Mullineux, at the company’s biennial conference which was held last week at Celtic Manor resort in Wales. The conference was the biggest to date with over 300 delegates attending from the industry.
During the conference it was also revealed that Caterforce, which is one of the biggest foodservice buying and marketing consortiums in the UK, is also forecasting revenue of £537 million for 2019, a like for like increase of 9.1% versus 2017.
The Group has made major investments in its infrastructure over the past two years with over £37 million spent on factors including buildings, transport and technology. Caterforce confirmed that it will continue to invest further over the coming 12 months.
Gary Mullineux, interim Managing Director of Caterforce, said: “As a group it’s been a very successful 12 months and the business is in an extremely healthy position. Each of our seven members has continued to grow, invest its infrastructure and as a group we’ve put a lot time as well as budget into key areas such as people, technology and locations. All of this alongside the success of our Chefs’ Selections range and newly launched coffee brand, Roast 440, has helped contribute to what we believe will be record turnover by 2021.”
Caterforce also used the conference as an opportunity to launch its new CSR policy and code of conduct for suppliers. The new strategy contains aims and objectives for Caterforce and each of its seven members, including Philip Dennis’ commitment to saving 20 million kilograms of CO2 by using wind turbines and JB Foods’ work with Fareshare and Social Bite to reduce food waste.
Caterforce’s own brand, Chefs’ Selections, has committed to removing the use of all black plastics and moving to unbleached cardboard by 2022. It has also pledged to ensure 100% of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
Gary continued: “It is now more important than ever for businesses to embrace corporate and social responsibility. Consumers are now far more aware of issues such as sustainability, personal health and wellbeing and animal welfare that’s why as a business we’re committed to change. On top of the recycling targets we’ll be also committing to reducing the amount of sugar and calories in our own brand products by 20% by 2025.”