Food Consultants Australia provide solutions for the retail food and hospitality industry

Catering Tender
Docklands, Melbourne

The Venue

• The new National Bank flagship building at Melbourne's Docklands is the boldest interpretation to date of the company's radical approach to workplace design.
  
• Project leader, Rosemary Kirkby's primary objective was to explore what role the workplace can plan in attracting and retaining people and then investing in the process that will facilitate that.
  
• "The final design is not about aesthetics but about business functionality, completing different to most buildings, that are stacked like pancakes and reference the way the business is organized."
  
• The two linked buildings at 800 Bourke Street successfully bring together 3,500 staff currently accommodated at 12 sites throughout the Melbourne CBD.

Challenges

• National values, workplace environment was founded on size strong principles:
  
  • Transparency - no offices.
  • Flexibility - ability to reconfigure space to accommodate projects.
  • Efficiency - continual re-engineering of the business.
  • One Team - encourage working across divisional sites.
  • Creation of a Community - sense of moral obligation of moral obligation to each others wellness - natural light, visual stimulation.
  • It was essential that the Catering - functions / meetings and the Café supported these principles and operated as one seamless team and service.

What FCA was asked to do

• Evaluate the most functional method of providing catering services to the auditorium, 500 meeting rooms and 5 boardrooms.
  
• Assist NAB through a tender process to find a caterer who would embrace the community principle.
  
• Recommend a caterer who could successfully operate the Café as well as functions.
  
• Design a kitchen to support the café.
  
• Design a corporate kitchen to cater to the numerous boardrooms.
  
• Establish systems and procedures of operation.

What FCA did

• Consulted with users and user groups.
  
• Formulated a cost efficient operating strategy.
  
• In conjunction with Sangster Design Group, designed the Café, Auditorium and Boardroom kitchens.
  
• Determined serviceware requirements for tearooms and breakout rooms.
  
• Issued tender documents for equipment suppliers.
  
• In conjunction with the project team developed Catering tender documents and evaluated prospective caterers.
  
• Appointed caterer to undertake catering at National Bank @ Docklands.

Click here to go back to our case studies page.