The Salvation Army UK Territorial Headquarters – New Office Catering Feasibility

The Salvation Army UK and Ireland territory has recently relocated to a newly constructed £32m headquarters in Denmark Hill, London.

Located at 1 Champion Park, the new office is built on land already owned by The Salvation Army and is next door to William Booth College, the historic training college for officers.

Designed using the latest environmental and energy efficiency standards, the six-storey new building will have significantly reduced running costs. With a capacity for 450 occupants this means three satellite London offices can now be repurposed.

Open-plan offices designed to be flexible and support smart working is arranged around the atrium to accommodate up to 450 employees and officers. Facilities also include multifunction rooms, recording studios, an editing suite and Café Hope, located on the ground floor, open to the public.

Local residents are able to visit Café Hope, which provides café and hospitality training and mentoring opportunities through The Salvation Army’s Employment Plus Service which supports people who have been struggling to find work.

Café customers can also choose to ‘pay if forward’ by adding a little extra to their bill. This extra money will go towards the catering costs for people using The Salvation Army’s Homeless Support services.

Montfort Catering Consultants initially advised and supported The Salvation Army with a feasibility study and catering strategy for the workplace catering facilities as well as the new café operation for employees and the general public.

Our advice and support included developing the operational concept as well as determining the employee and general public demand and associated business case for their new UK Headquarters.

Given the prominent location adjacent to Denmark Hill Railway Station and the high levels of commuter footfall we also supported in determining the most appropriate food service management model to optimise the commercial potential while ensuring that the catering is culturally sympathetic and customer centric.

Following this we provided full catering tender support and advice, including an initial soft market engagement exercise and full tender exercise to attract a relevant catering operator with a strong social enterprise ethos.

We then supported with the  integration and mobilisation of the catering partner and are retained to represent The Salvation Army for on-going catering operational and financial management of the catering contract.

Advice & support has included:

Stakeholder engagement

• Market & environmental analysis
• Café demand & financial business modelling
• Development of operational concept
• Future management operating options & approach
• Catering soft market test
• Catering tender support & project management
• Ongoing management of the catering contract as client representative