BWUH Ltd, which is responsible for the management of the ICC Belfast, Waterfront Hall and Ulster Hall brands, has awarded a new catering deal with Hospitality Belfast, a joint venture between Yellow Door and Mount Charles.
The four-year catering contract will see the JV manage and facilitate all catering requirements across the venues. The new contract also provides for an optional two-year extension.
Hospitality Belfast will work hand in hand with the team across both venues to facilitate a full-service catering offer including retail catering for entertainment events, gala dinner and corporate function facilitation – as well as a wide range of catering options tailored to support the venues growing national and international conference business.
Chief Executive of ICC Belfast, Waterfront Hall, Ulster Hall, Catherine Toolan, commented, 'Hospitality Belfast have proved through the tender process that they are the right catering partner to support our plans to win and deliver large-scale national and international conferences and events for the city of Belfast.
'A significant factor in their appointment is our shared desire to champion local produce and maximise our opportunity to profile local suppliers on a world-stage. Catering is a critical factor in our ability to attract major conferences, and our clients increasingly tell us they want quality, sustainable, local produce as part of their catering requirements.
'The contract will represent a significant portion of our estimated £3 million per annum local supply chain spend.'
ICC Belfast, the brand representing Northern Ireland’s only purpose-built international convention centre, in conjunction with Visit Belfast, Tourism Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council, is committed to delivering corporate conference and convention style events that take place over a three-day period and have a minimum of 600 delegates per day.
Each of these out-of-state delegates contribute up to £488 per day to the Northern Ireland economy in terms of inward spend across hotels, hospitality and retail. The venue is targeted with delivering 50,000 delegate days per year and £100m of economic impact to the City of Belfast by March 2021.
Andrew Dougan, from Hospitality Belfast at Yellow Door, stated, 'We are delighted to be able to build on our relationship with the team across these fantastic venues and are committed to supporting ICC Belfast in their bid to become one of the UK, Ireland and indeed Europe’s top performing international convention centres.
'With the contract now in place we can recruit a range of full and part-time employees to support the wide-ranging catering offering required to facilitate this dynamic business. We will also focus on local suppliers and champion their produce to both local and international customers.
'47% of ICC Belfast’s conferencing revenue can be attributed to out-of-state business events, and whilst the venue currently generates an economic impact of £20m per annum, there is the potential for this figure to be doubled if the appropriate infrastructure is in place.'
Trevor Annon from Hospitality Belfast, and Mount Charles' founder, added, “The award of this contract following an extensive tendering process, reflects not only the quality of service we can deliver but reinforces our vision for the future.
'Our commitment is also evidenced by the fact we are investing £600k, in areas where the customer experience will be enhanced. The contract is expected to generate turnover in excess of £25m over the term and this will be a major boost to the local economy.”
