Mirror Group Newspapers

Newspapers

Case study

As a director with responsibility for a number of cost centres for a company within the newspaper industry, I needed to be assured that our staff catering operations which were managed by a contractor, was both cost effective and provided the best possible value for money for our staff.

Because we operated a 24/7 operation covering three shifts we needed unbiased specialist advice as to how best to gain:

  • a) accurate and realistic information about our ongoing operation
  • b) how we could move forward with any potential new innovations or cost savings
  • c) who would provide the link in order to ensure that any new changes to our busy staff restaurants were managed without compromising service levels.

In order for us to realise our own ideas and to formalise the above objectives, we sought advice from an established FM consultancy and called the Balance Partnership. Following an explanatory meeting, the Balance consultant provided us with a detailed proposal that outlined all related action points, timescales and costs. The assignment also incorporated all meetings and correspondence with the contractors. After further discussion and fine tuning, we decided to adopt Balance's proposals and they kept us informed with progress at regular intervals.

Client's Comments

The most crucial advantage of using the Balance Partnership for our particular assignment was that they were able to get information very quickly and transpose this into tangible and logical forward actions that because of their experience, they understood what would work for us. We soon enjoyed the benefits of a change of contractor at lower operating costs providing a better and sustainable quality service for our employees.
Kevin Hughes, Director