Analysis of Current Operational Practices and Issues of Contract-Managed Foodservice Companies in Republic of Korea

Eum, Young Ram; Lyu, Eun Soon

Abstract

This study was surveyed to provide the information on current operational practices and issues of contract-managed foodservice companies. Questionnaires were distributed to 79 contract-managed foodservice companies (eight large-size, 48 mid-size, 23 small-size companies) from March to May in 2002. The contract-managed foodservice companies provided averages of 269,184 (range 140,036~503,500), 14,837 (range 450~75,269), and 4,065 (range 930~8,050) meals daily from large, medium, and small-size companies, respectively. The companies managed to averages of 268.2 (160~619) foodservice contracts at large-size companies, 21.9 (5~63) contracts at mid-size companies, and 4.7 (1~10) contracts at small-size companies. The average numbers of dietitians were 298.6 (range 104~671) in large-size companies, 22.2(6~86) in mid-size companies, and 3.8(1~9) in small-size companies. The averages of sales were 156.5 billion at large-size companies, 6.7 billion at mid-size companies, and 1.7 billion at small-size companies in 2001. The contract was two types including management fee contract(5%), and profit and loss contract(95%). The cost ratios for office foodservice were 59.5% at food cost, 24.2% at labor cost, 6.3% at profit, and 10.1% at other cost. For hospital foodservice, the ratios were 54.0% at the food cost, 34.6% at labor cost, 3.0% at profit, and 11.8% at other cost. For high school foodservice, the ratios were 62.2% at the food cost, 21.5% at labor cost, 5.4% at profit, and 11.2% at other cost. When the contractors managed to the foodservice, the most important matters were the sanitation management and customer satisfaction. Also, the difficult problems were excess investment of equipments and low meal prices.