NO 428

ASCOT RACECOURSE

The multi-million-pound catering contract at Ascot’s world-famous racecourse, encompasses race days as well as their non-race day conference and banqueting activities. Royal Ascot alone see them welcome 300,000 visitors and serve more than 50,000 bottles of champagne across the annual five-day meeting attended by the Queen.

As the lead consultant and link between bidders and the Ascot team, Tricon led the tendering process for the catering contract, preparing tender documentation, including an initial prospectus. Key tasks involved facilitating initial briefing sessions, mid-bid interviews, reference site visits and final presentations.

With the sheer scale of the operations and the wide breadth of offers available at Ascot, our independent assessment concluded that no single operator could deliver the exceptionally high standards expected at Ascot.

The multi million-pound catering contract at Ascot, encompasses all race days as well as non-race day conference and banqueting activity at the world-famous racecourse in Berkshire, UK. This includes the prestigious Royal Ascot week that welcomes 300,000 visitors and serves more than 51,000 bottles of champagne across the five-day meeting each year.

We led a tendering process for the catering contract, acting as the lead consultant. We prepared the tender documentation, including an initial prospectus, and acted as the link between bidders and the Ascot team. This incorporated facilitating initial briefing sessions, mid bid interviews, reference site visits and final presentations.

We provided an independent assessment of the historic contractual relationship between Ascot and its catering partners and concluded that the breadth of offers and sheer scale of the operation were too big for a single operator to deliver to the exceptionally high standards expected at Ascot.The key outcome was the recommendation to break up the contract for Royal Ascot week into multiple lots for the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting. The rationale was that this would allow two or three specialist operators to focus on specific aspects of the operation with the principal caterer retaining overall control of the core operation.Following board approval and sign off Tricon helped implement the multi operator site approach.