HOSPITALITY ASSURED
John McEwen, Managing Director of Elior Defence Contracts (centre left) being presented with the Hospitality Assured certificate by Institute of Hospitality Chief Executive Philippe Rossiter FIH (centre right)
MAY 2008
Avenance Defence Contracts Division is awarded Hospitality Assured status
Avenance Defence Contracts Division (DCD), part of Elior UK, has achieved Hospitality Assured accreditation.
John McEwen, Managing Director of Elior Defence Contracts, was presented with the DCD’s Hospitality Assured certificate and plaque by Institute of Hospitality Chief Executive Philippe Rossiter FIH, at a presentation ceremony – recently held at Buckley Barracks, Hullavington, Wiltshire.
Commenting on DCD’s excellent achievement, Philippe Rossiter said: “In recent weeks, Avenance has secured Hospitality Assured accreditation for three very different aspects of its business portfolio: the City, Marks & Spencer, and Defence. In each of these assessments the Avenance teams have all scored very highly, and with similar scores. Given the challenging nature of the Hospitality Assured standard, this says much about the culture of customer service which is embedded throughout the whole company.”
The Hospitality Assured assessment for the Avenance DCD covered hotel services, leisure and retail at 30 super multi-activity units located in the East Midlands and Kent, as well as a geographical area stretching from Gloucestershire to Cornwall for 43 Brigade. At all these military units, DCD is responsible for everything from hotel services and catering to providing retail convenience stores, tailoring, facilities management such as ground maintenance, laundry and cleaning services.
John McEwen is delighted to have achieved Hospitality Assured. “The Standard is assisting us significantly in moving forward in our pursuit of continual improvement, as we seek bigger and better contracts,” he said. “Hospitality Assured provides an excellent objective independent quality benchmark against which we can measure our performance on an annual basis. Its framework is also ideal for being bolted onto the back of quality standards such as Investors in People and ISO14001 environmental management systems.”
Last month, DCD gained a contract with Norfolk Constabulary in a deal worth over £3 million – reflecting the company’s aim to broaden its focus outside the defence market, targeting largely self-delivered facilities management contracts in the commercial and private sector.