The context
The modern business messenger service, Intercom is an Irish founded business with a fast-growing global presence. On deciding to move from a shared workspace into its own offices in London, they made the decision to collaborate with Fooditude for its office catering needs in 2018.
What was the challenge?
Before Intercom made the decision to move from a shared workspace into their own office, the company had been using a combination of delivery app and corporate food delivery services. Staff could simply order from the catering and meal delivery services whenever they wanted.This made it hard to build a sense of occasion or worker unity around mealtimes and even harder to make events in the office function smoothly. Intercom catered for 25 staff at the time, but as a successful company, it expected that number to grow. The company therefore approached Fooditude about providing lunch five days a week.
Our solution:
Fooditude worked in close collaboration with Intercom to plan and provide delivered-in catering. After in-depth conversations, they started out with a staffed hot lunch two days a week and dropped-off cold lunch the other three. As the relationship progressed Intercom began to see the benefits of a more holistic approach. It was agreed that Fooditude would fully manage the food at Intercom’s new office, so the office manager could rest assured that all needs were met.
This meant creating a ‘one-stop-shop’, covering everything from daily meals to pantry services to events and hospitality. It also stretched to dealing with equipment leases and servicing. Fooditude were providing hot breakfast and lunch five days a week.
Happy staff and streamlined operations
Fooditude’s approach offered new services to Intercom that served to streamline operations and make their staff happy.
Starting with 2 days a week of hot food helped to build up a list of dining preferences (anecdotally, we’re told those were the busiest days in the office). A full-time member of front of house staff, matching the personality of the office was brought in to really champion their needs – from dietary preferences to stocking the right snacks and drinks. A dedicated lunch hour was set up and menus were circulated at the beginning of the week to encourage everyone to take breaks together and build some excitement around the lunch hour.
An operations manager worked closely with Intercom’s workplace manager to ensure operational efficiency and return on investment, and Fooditude also assumed responsibility for all the food safety compliance. The Fooditude events team supported customer events at their office and the central marketing team helped organise fun activities, like tastings and workshops or creative initiatives to promote health and sustainability.
What were the benefits? Aside from the delicious food.
With careful planning and a collaborative approach, Fooditude was able to offer up several business gains for Intercom. Not only could it provide peace of mind to the Office Manager, but it also provided a perfect example of Intercom’s motto that ‘Relationships make business better’ in action. Fooditude’s food was bringing Intercom’s staff together and building a sense of belonging in the office. By putting their needs front and centre, there was a genuine and long-lasting boost in overall staff satisfaction with their food at work.
From a business perspective, Intercom was able to enjoy excellent return on investment in terms of quality and ease of management. Intercom’s staff could focus on doing what they were best at, safe in the knowledge that Fooditude would deliver a faultless service. From legal compliance, allergen management, health and food safety matters right through to uncomplicated contracts and clear single invoices for all food and beverage services.
Here’s what the commissioning workplace manager had to say about our partnership:
“We started our office catering journey using a few different corporate food delivery services for all staff meals but as we grew from 10 to 40 staff over the past year, we quickly outgrew this model. Support was lacking and we really wanted to reduce the time and effort required by our team in this process as well as the amount of packaging waste that was being delivered each day to our office. Through word-of-mouth we were lucky enough to come across Fooditude and switching to their services for our daily lunch in the office has been a win on all accounts! They own the experience end-to-end making our lives a lot easier when it comes to managing catering onsite and they offer a fabulous range of healthy and interesting meal options for us every day without any need for us to place orders. We’ve built a strong relationship with the Fooditude team and rely on them as an integral part of our office team now.”
Jade Shearstone, Workplace Manager, Intercom
What’s next for the partnership?
Going forward, Fooditude’s relationship with Intercom will continue to adapt and evolve to the company’s changing needs.
Flexibility is built into Fooditude’s business model. Cooking everything from a central production kitchen means clients don’t need to commit to a regular headcount or give up office space to a kitchen. Working this way leaves them in good stead as they help Intercom return to the office once the pandemic eases.
Intercom has already discovered the role of food in the new destination office. Want to get a new perspective on how to shape the modern workplace?
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