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In recent times the importance of training and education have been recognised as important tools to foster economic growth within companies and industries in the global marketplace. Unfortunately the UK hospitality industry in general has been unwilling to train and develop its managers. This paper examines the contract catering sector of the hospitality industry in Northern Ireland. It commences by investigating the educational qualifications and training of managers within the contract catering sector and then proceeds to discuss the transference of hospitality skills and practices.

In recent times the contract catering sector of the hospitality industry has grown substantially in size and scope. However, there have been few management studies carried out within this market sector. This study aims to bridge this knowledge gap by determining the essential competencies required by contract catering managers. These results are then compared with how managers spend their time. The differences between contract catering sub‐sections are discussed, in addition to the differences between contract catering and other sectors of the hospitality industry. Concludes that there is a need to develop the knowledge and skills of contract catering managers to assist in bridging the current gap between industry and education.

Catering services play important role in the Spanish economy, accounting for 6.2% of GDP in 2021. To overcome the adverse economic impacts of COVID-19, catering services are considered one of the drivers to stimulate economic growth. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to analyse the sociodemographic profile of the family's main breadwinner who allocates most of his expenditure budget on different catering services before and during the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 in Spain.

The official Family Budget Survey in Spain was used. This offers information on expenditure by families in 2019 and 2020. CHAID multivariate analysis was employed. This has proved a valuable tool in predicting expenditure, as well as determining the cause–effect relationship of this expenditure.

Findings establish the main breadwinner's expenditure on catering services based on predictors such as “year” affected by the pandemic; “type of employment contract”; “gender”; and “age”. A gender “pub-gap” in consumption in bars and cafes has been revealed, and families with a male breadwinner, on a permanent contract, between the age of 40 and 60 spent the most on catering services.

This research presents a new interdisciplinary approach to family breadwinners as a company whose spend on catering is shaping the economic recovery and leading to new answers for hospitality management. Identified factors can lead to improved decision-making and contextualisation of economic models for food service providers in a post-pandemic future.

Omnichannel sales have provided new impetus for the development of catering merchants. The authors thus focus on how catering merchants should manage capacities at the ordering, production and delivery stages to meet customers’ needs in different channels under third-party platform delivery and merchant self-delivery. This is of great significance for the development of the omnichannel catering industry.

This paper formulates the capacity decisions of omnichannel catering merchants under the third-party platform delivery and merchant self-delivery mode. The authors mainly use queuing theory to analyze the queuing behavior of online and offline customers, and the impact of waiting time on customer shopping behavior. In addition, the authors also characterize the merchant’s capacity by the rate in queuing model.

The authors find that capacities at ordering stage and food production stage are composed of base capacities and safety capacities, but the delivery capacities only have the latter. And in the self-delivery mode, merchants can develop higher safety capacities by charging delivery fees. The authors prove that regardless of the delivery mode, omnichannel sales can bring higher profits to merchants by integrating demand.

The authors focus on analyzing the capacity management of omnichannel catering merchants at the ordering, production and delivery stages. And the authors also add the delivery process into the omnichannel for analysis, so as to solve the problem of capacity decision-making under different delivery modes. The management of delivery capacity and its impact on other stages’ capacities are not covered in other literature studies, which is one of the main innovations of this paper.

The contract catering segment of the UK hospitality industry has expanded rapidly over the past decade, yet few contemporary hospitality researchers acknowledge the existence of this significant market sector. Seeks to rectify this by examining the size, scope and market position of the UK contract catering sector. Documents past experiences of commercial and public sector catering units to illustrate the move of contract catering management towards facilities management. Discusses future trends in an attempt to determine the future role of contract catering management within facilities.

The “demographic time bomb” will have implications for all industries, especially in the recruitment of graduates. This situation is explored with reference to the hotel and catering industry in the UK. Research carried out into the job opportunities for graduates in this sector of industry is reported with regard to the types of job package offered; training; levels of responsibility and career prospects; salary and fringe benefits. It was found that the packages offered exhibit similarities and differences when compared with those offered by other industries and concludes that the present situation in the hotel and catering industry may have arisen from a failure to regard itself as competing in the wider graduate labour market.

In China food waste during the catering service process namely the back end of the entire food supply chain has neither received sufficient attention nor been evaluated precisely even though it has been the cause of food security concerns. In response considering the complex tacit knowledge embedded at the front end of the Chinese catering supply chain this article aimed at addressing relevant issues from the viewpoint of tacit knowledge.

This article is conceptual in nature. From the perspective of knowledge management (KM), we used a deductive method to explore intricate tacit knowledge embedded at the front end of the catering supply chain in China.

The key challenges in preventing food waste in the Chinese catering supply chains are: (1) a variety of knowledge icebergs in Chinese catering culture, (2) the complex tacit dimension of knowledge in Chinese cookery, and (3) difficulties in bringing standardization to the Chinese catering business. The three KM-based step-by-step solutions are: (1) standardizing the essential cookery techniques of Chinese cuisine, (2) encouraging catering enterprises to create online knowledge-sharing platforms to reduce food waste for all stakeholders, and (3) using big data to build a nationwide KM system.

Our research indicates that the of a comprehensive KM system specific to the Chinese catering supply chain is crucial for standardizing the essential cookery techniques of Chinese cuisine and analyzing big data, which could help improve Chinese catering processes and gastronomic habits in reality, so as to more effectively prevent food waste.

Our research contributes to the literature by connecting the reduction of food waste issues with the KM perspective. A key to more efficiently reducing food waste in China lies in the lack of a deeper, more systematic understanding of the tacit dimension of knowledge in Chinese cookery and impressive dietary culture, namely the front end of the catering supply chain.

Catering is one of the biggest headaches of the facilities manager. Does the decision to offer some kind of a restaurant service depend upon the menu, number of staff, location, level of subsidy, or the space available? What options are there for different levels and types of service? What trends and changes are there in catering technology? Who should decide and how can the decision be most effectively made? Jolyon Drury, prominent catering and materials handling consultant, has helped Facilities prepare this guide, which is intended to arm the facilities manager for his journey through the catering labyrinth.

The implications of government policy for public sector catering employees are considerable. Pay, conditions of service, hours of work, the effort‐bargain and staffing levels have all been altered to the general detriment of catering workers. There is now greater flexibility of working arrangements for these public sector workers, and managers find it easier to control industrial relations in this environment. Earlier results of research carried out to explore the impact of these changes are discussed and the situation assessed.

The impact of Government moves to put public sector catering out to competitive tender will severely affect some relationships between public sector catering management and staff, a range of employment issues, the skill levels of catering staff and the role of public sector catering management. The employment implications of the contracting‐out exercise in public sector catering in hospitals and schools are assessed.