Anyone looking to write Catering Tenders face the same taxing question. It’s the old, do I focus my catering tender on the high quality of the food or the low cost of the service?
It’s a question you should have answered when you first set up your catering services company. Right from the begining you would have had an idea on the service you were going to offer, and your catering tenders should be written around this.
You will get knowwhere selling expensive high qaulity food if you pride yourself on a value for money service. On the flip side, if you pride yourself on the quality of your food and use expensive ingredients, then trying to compete on price is not the way forward.
And yet it isn’t necessarily that easy to decide when you’re writing the catering tenders. This decision can be helped by that of the catering tender you are looking to win.
previously Catering tenders for schools were based on cost and your tender would only have been succesful if you were amongst the cheapest.. Schools are now more aware that school dinners should be of a higher quality, largely thanks to TV Chef, Jamie Olivers Campaign.
Yet even in this example the answer isn’t clear cut. Schools have to be seen to offer a healty good quality menu. They must also though, watch their costs as their budgets may not be as large as corporate companies.
So what‘s the solution for your catering services company? How should you pitch your catering tenders?
The answer may be to discuss value for money in your catering tenders. pricing you tender too high will only have one outcome, and that is not you winning the contract. But, if you know your services aren’t the cheapest, explain that to anyone reading your catering tenders.
Maybe you only use free range eggs. Maybe your napkins are all recyclable. It could be that all your hot drinks are Fairtrade. Use these higher quality ingredients as justification for the higher prices of your catering tenders.
If you are amking any claims within your catering tender, you need to make sure you back these up. Are you registered as a distributor of Fairtrade products? Do you only use Soil Association certified ingredients? Then it needs to be in all your catering tenders.
So How would you write your catering tenders if you were offering low cost catering services? The answer lies in the jobs you are pitching for. Focus you efforts on companies that are wanting lower cost catering tenders.
Writing catering tenders is a difficult balancing act. Just remember that whether company is looking for cheaper or higher quality food, they all want to see value for money in all of the catering tenders they read.