ONE of York's biggest employers has taken on a new catering company to feed its growing numbers of staff.

The Catering People of Wetherby has won a £300,000 contract to daily feed the 1,100 people working at CPP, or Card Protection Plan in Holgate Park, replacing the national caterers Eurest.

Andy North, operations director of The Catering People, said the existing eight catering staff at York would be supplemented by two more, bringing the total number employed by his £5 million turnover company to about 260.

"We have worked with the staff over the past two months and pulled together the team which will herald a new eating era at CPP," he said.

His policy, already applied at canteens in Portakabin, York, and Richmond Ice Cream in Leeming Bar, was to use, whenever possible, fresh local produce with a choice of organic as well as "fair trade" Third World products like coffee, biscuits and sweets.

CPP now plans to spend "tens of thousands of pounds" revamping the canteen and kitchens, but meanwhile the new caterers are reporting that already up to 300 more people per day were using the existing canteen.

"Where the uptake was about 45 per cent, it is now up to between 70 and 75 per cent," said Mr North who, with former colleagues Aileen Smith and Maggie Steed, started The Catering People five years ago. It has built up a solid client base throughout Yorkshire the North East. The CPP contract is one of its biggest.

Kevin Fisher, CPP's human resources director, said the massive refurbishment would mean briefly closing down the canteen at the end of this month, but it was a necessary investment and inconvenience.

"This is really important to us as a 24-hour operation. When we first moved to our new main contacts centre in 2001 it was equipped to house between 500 and 700 people. We are spending tens of thousands of pounds to upgrade the canteen facilities to cater for nearly 1,100 and the food will be, to some extent, subsidised."

The remodelled canteen will offer "live cooking" - that is a chef at hotplate or grill who can cook to order, then there will be a sandwich bar, a caf called The Cool Place, featuring MTV, soft music and internet facilities.

A launch day for The Catering People's suppliers, such as the Brunzl catering equipment group and others, will take place on Monday, November 14.

Updated: 10:32 Friday, October 21, 2005