Leading UK caterer, Lexington, has been awarded BT’s workplace catering service provider with an annual contract value of £15 million. Selected for its technical capabilities, diverse brands, and unflinching drive to achieve zero-carbon, Lexington is now the sole catering provider for BT’s 56 sites across the UK and selected Openreach sites.

CBRE has contracted with BT to deliver outsourced services and have partnered with Lexington who are responsible for catering services across the portfolio, from hospitality and events, staff restaurants and coffee shops through to digital vending and micro-markets.

The partnership has exciting plans to digitise the food experience for BT’s 80,000 employees and visitors. To support this, Lexington has developed food experiences that inspire and engage customers with technology, sustainability, wellness and health at the heart of their offering.

Aligning with BT’s Better Workplace Programme, Lexington will provide bespoke curated experiences in each of the tech company’s eight UK-wide flagship ‘Better Workplace’ office locations, employing technology to allow customers to order and pay across the catering operation, including out of hours through the use of food lockers and digital only micro-markets operating 24/7.

In support of BT’s net zero commitments, Lexington is driving a series of ambitious sustainability initiatives across the portfolio, which include creating and incentivising low carbon dishes, reducing food waste and eliminating single-use plastics and paper cups. They have forged relationships with Olio to redistribute food waste across the portfolio and are working alongside social enterprise, Change Please, providing financial support for homelessness through proceeds from artisanal coffees as well as trainee jobs at Better Workplace locations. The contract with CBRE also encompasses services at several Openreach sites, enabling businesses in the BT portfolio to benefit from Lexington’s expertise. 

At the heart of the offer, is the importance of wellness. Lexington’s team of dieticians have created a series of industry-first events and interactive workshops to highlight the importance of diet in wellbeing and performance. Covering topics including nutrition for children, pregnancy, mental wellbeing, stress and menopause, employees will receive newsletters, exclusive Q&A sessions and recipes, supported by social media content. To boost morale, Lexington have also cooked up seasonal competitions, such as a Masterchef-style cook-off, giving BT’s senior leaders the chance to cook head-to-head with Lexington’s chef teams.

Neil Edmond, Workplace Director at BT, said: “Delicious healthy food is critical for colleague wellbeing, with the consumption of it also generally offering people the opportunity to come together to enjoy each other's company and reinforce that sense of workplace community. The transformation of BT's food offering not only aligns perfectly with our Better Workplace Programme, which is modernising and streamlining our UK office portfolio, but also our ambitions to uplift the role that nutrition plays in colleague Wellbeing. We’re excited about putting great food at the heart of our business: boosting and digitising our customer experience in partnership with Lexington.”

“We’re also aware that we can make a big impact as a large employer by reducing carbon footprint in our catering services – whether we’re incentivising low-carbon meal choices, or reducing single-use plastics. Lexington is leading the way when it comes to achieving net zero commitments, so they’ve been a valuable ally, coming up with creative ways to work with local social enterprises, while reducing waste and carbon emissions.”

Mark Harris, Alliance Director at CBRE, said: “Catering is about food, service and people and we were very impressed by Lexington’s strategic plan to continue to drive this throughout BT’s UK office portfolio. Lexington were chosen for their award winning service training and desire to attract the best talent, as well as their innovative, nutritional and well balanced food and service offers. Lexington previously provided food services at our EE locations and now, with the inclusion of BT’s workplace catering services, we are entering an exciting new phase of our partnership.”  

Matt Wood, Managing Director at Lexington said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for Lexington to make a big impact in BT’s workplace catering: reducing carbon emissions across UK operations, whilst improving employee experience through exciting, engaging and of course, delicious catering services. It’s great to work with such progressive companies; CBRE and BT and we’re enjoying getting stuck into the challenge, coming up with innovative and creative ways to help them achieve their goals.”