For years, workplace catering followed a simple formula. Guests showed up at set times, ate what was on the menu, and went back to work.
That world is gone. Expectations have shifted. Employees want flexibility, choice, and an experience that fits their workday. For caterers, that means rethinking everything: how they plan, operate, and engage customers.
Few know this better than Sandra Rijswijk, Digital Transformation Manager at Vermaat, and Daniel Corlett, Managing Director Workplace Services at ISS UK.
Vermaat operates 350+ locations across healthcare, corporate catering, and travel, employing thousands in the Netherlands and Germany. ISS A/S, a global giant, has 37,000 employees in the UK and Ireland alone, serving industries from education to corporate facilities.
Sandra and Daniel face the same pressing challenges: rising costs, stricter regulations, and the push for more flexible, engaging food service. And they’re making real changes to meet those demands.
So, we asked them: What’s working? And what isn’t?
This article breaks down what’s driving the shift, where caterers are struggling, and how Sandra and Daniel are making it work at scale.
The Fixed Lunch Hour? Dead.
If you ran a contract catering operation in the 2000s, the job was straightforward: serve good food, on time, at a reasonable cost.
That’s over. The fixed lunch hour is dead.
“Hybrid work has forced us to rethink everything,” says Daniel Corlett. “We can’t assume we’ll have a full dining room at lunchtime anymore.”
We have to be ready for flexible, unpredictable demand patterns.
Daniel Corlett Managing Director Workplace Services at ISS UK
“We have to be ready for flexible, unpredictable demand patterns,” Daniel explains. That means smarter planning, better forecasting, more digital integration, and rethinking service models.
Takeout, grab-and-go, pre-ordering, coffee corners—caterers are looking at every option to meet employees where they are, instead of expecting them to follow a fixed routine.
And it’s not just when and where employees eat.
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“People want to choose their meal beforehand on an app,” says Sandra Rijswijk. “They want it delivered or ready for pick-up at a set time. The time people are willing to spend getting their food has completely changed.”
People want to choose their meal beforehand on an app and have it delivered or ready for pick-up at a set time.
Sandra Rijswijk Digital Transformation Manager at Vermaat
Long queues, fixed time slots, generic menus—none of it flies anymore. Employees want personalisation, pre-ordering, and the freedom to eat whenever and wherever they want.
Daniel sees the same shift at ISS UK.
“Choice is huge. We’re not just dealing with lunch. It’s breakfast, mid-morning, afternoon, and sometimes evening. And we have to cater to generational differences, dietary preferences, and sustainability concerns. It’s a massive shift.”
Caterers that still rely on a rigid mealtime model risk losing guests to more convenient options. And why wouldn’t they? If getting a meal on-site feels restrictive, people will turn to vending machines, delivery apps, or the café down the street.
When that happens, food sales suffer, and so does office culture.
Bringing Employees Back to the Office
Employers are turning to caterers for help.
“It’s one of our clients’ biggest challenges,” Sandra explains, “bringing employees back to the office. And, there’s no better way to connect than having a meal together.”
Today’s employers want more than just a canteen. They’re looking to build culture and create an office environment in which people actually want to spend time.
“Workplace restaurants have become spaces for informal meetings, catching up with colleagues, and building connections,” Daniel says. “It’s about community.”
For caterers, this means rethinking their role.
“Far beyond food,” Daniel continues, “our goal now is to create an environment that brings people together.”
That’s one part, meeting evolving expectations is another. And they have become more complex than ever before.
Token Healthy Option
Innovation isn’t only about when people eat, it’s also about how they decide what to eat.
A healthy salad, tucked away into the menu, won’t do. Guests want transparency. “They want to know what’s in their food, how it fits their diet, and whether it aligns with their personal goals,” Sandra explains.
High-protein? Low-carb? Locally sourced? The details matter.
But, people don’t want caterers telling them what’s good for them, like ‘Try our healthy, high-protein salad for ultra-runners.’ They expect the tools to figure it out themselves.
Catering can no longer be one-size-fits-all. We need to keep innovating to meet consumer expectations.
Daniel Corlett
“Well-being is personal,” Daniel adds. “People don’t want to be told what’s good or bad for them. Catering can no longer be one-size-fits-all. We need to continually innovate to meet consumer expectations, whether that’s AI-assisted ordering, automated meal planning, or real-time sustainability tracking.”
And new regulations add extra layers of complexity.
“More and more data requirements are coming into play,” Sandra says. “Especially for ESG reports, which track everything a restaurant does. We’re not just talking about guest experience anymore. We have to track food waste, carbon footprint, and procurement sustainability. That’s a whole different ball game from a few years ago. It demands a lot more from us as caterers.”
Technology plays a key role for companies like ISS and Vermaat, but it’s not plug-and-play. Successful implementation takes a digital strategy, without it, obstacles pile up fast.
Data Chaos
Every catering operator wants to be data-driven. Few actually are. Instead of a single, reliable source of truth, data is scattered across systems, locked in silos, or simply inaccessible.
In the end, I need to have all that data in one system, one screen, one report, and preferably in real-time.
Sandra Rijswijk
And she’s right.
“If you look at a catering business, data travels a very long way,” she says. “From the guest to the suppliers and back, it moves through different systems, applications, and providers.”
Think about all the data points that need to stay in sync across hundreds of sites:
Guest data: Preferences, dietary needs, meal choices, and buying habits.
Menu & recipe data: Ingredients, allergens, nutrition, and sustainability.
Procurement & supplier data: Sourcing, pricing, packaging, and order volumes.
Inventory & stock levels: Availability, usage, waste, and restocking.
Sales & transactions: Order history, payments, peak times, and trends.
All of this data exists, but it doesn’t always connect.
“We’re working on bringing it all together,” Sandra says. “All locations, one system, with the right analysis in place. But that takes collaboration across the entire chain.”
The goal isn’t just guest transparency. “It’s about giving caterers the insights they need to improve operations.” Getting there goes beyond adding more software. It takes the right infrastructure to make it work.
Laying the Groundwork
For years, the focus in contract catering was serving meals on time, managing costs, and maintaining quality.
Data? An afterthought. Systems were built around immediate needs, not long-term insights. Decisions relied on experience and intuition rather than structured data.
That worked, until it didn’t.
“There have probably been times when we didn’t pay enough attention to data—how it’s used, where it goes, and what happens when it moves between systems,” Daniel reflects. “So yes, we absolutely needed to step up and invest more in the right teams to support us on the technology side.”
Many caterers rush into digitalisation, layering new tools on top of outdated foundations.
“We made the mistake of rolling out consumer-facing tech before sorting out our core back-of-house systems,” says Daniel. Instead of making things easier, it added fragmentation and complexity.
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Think Big. Build Step-by-Step
Data needs structure. Processes need standardisation. And integration can’t be an afterthought. When everything is aligned, data flows seamlessly—no workarounds, no bottlenecks.
“This requires tight collaboration across the entire chain,” says Sandra. “But it’s never a one-and-done job. We’re constantly figuring out what guests want, what operations need, and how the two align. You have to think big, know where you want to go, but build it step by step.”
And that’s where many businesses go wrong.
The hardest part is when you rush ahead and implement flashy new front-end solutions without first fixing the data infrastructure.
Daniel Corlett
Both ISS and Vermaat are tackling this head-on.
“We’ve spent the last six months reviewing our systems, assessing connections, identifying manual interventions, and evaluating API effectiveness,” Daniel says.
This approach ties in with what ISS and Vermaat want to achieve. They aren’t digitalising for the sake of it. “The goal is to actually improve how we operate,” Daniel says.
“We connect to many different systems, and the ones that work best are those with an open approach to receiving and processing data,” Daniel adds. “We need to be able to continually build on what we have, rather than getting locked into rigid solutions that don’t evolve with us.”
Workplace Catering: What Works (and What Doesn’t)
Let’s summarise. The world of workplace catering has fundamentally changed. That much is clear. Fixed mealtimes, standard menus, and siloed data no longer cut it. Employees expect flexibility, employers demand engagement, and regulators require transparency.
The caterers that thrive will be the ones who adapt; not just to shifting expectations, but to the operational complexity that comes with them.
As Sandra and Daniel have shown, technology isn’t a magic fix. It’s an enabler, a tool that delivers value when the right data, processes, and teams are in place.
Successful catering operations, like Vermaat and ISS, take a structured approach to make this a reality. They introduce technology to solve real problems, drive efficiency, and take control of operations, while simultaneously building a strong digital foundation.
They don’t just add tools; they connect them. Data is structured. Processes are standardised. And tools with robust APIs are at the center of it all.
By working closely with their tech partners, Sandra and Daniel ensure systems talk to each other instead of creating silos. And they do it with one clear goal: better operations, better guest experiences, and a catering model that is built to last.
Turn Complexity into Control
Serving great meals at scale means keeping operations tight.
Apicbase streamlines your back-of-house, connecting data, automating workflows, and adapting as you grow.
Geert Merckaert is the Content and Research Director at Apicbase and the producer of The Food Service Growth Show. He specialises in operational excellence, sustainability, and digital transformation in the restaurant and catering industry. Geert has a diverse background in content marketing, writing, and research, with previous roles in corporate finance at Bank van Breda, food marketing at VLAM, and the trade association Bakkers Vlaanderen. He holds degrees in Communications and Journalism from Plantijnhogeschool, as well as Art History from the Kunsthistorisch Instituut. During his studies, Geert spent nine years working weekends as a restaurant chef. He is dedicated to helping foodservice companies achieve sustainable growth through engaging and insightful content.
