Independent caterer and Royal Warrant holder, CH&CO, has announced that it is to merge its Scottish business with Inspire Catering, a niche caterer based in Stirling with operations across Scotland.
Founded in 2008 by David Pease and Lorna McFarlane, Inspire Catering has enjoyed continued strong growth and success. With CH&CO’s ambition to become a leading player in the Scottish food and hospitality industry and make further investments in Scotland, the decision to join forces was a natural fit. Both businesses share an excellent reputation in Scotland and cater for a variety of prestigious clients across the workplaces, education and destination catering sectors.
Inspire Catering serves 14,000 customers every day across the workplaces and the education sectors. It also caters for more independent school pupils in Scotland than any other caterer. David Pease and Lorna McFarlane will continue in their current roles and take responsibility for CH&CO’s existing contracts in Scotland.
Inspire Catering will also benefit from CH&CO’s investment in new systems and IT infrastructure, leading teams of experts, as well as additional career development opportunities for its team of 250 employees.
David Pease and Lorna McFarlane commented:
“We are both really delighted to announce this exciting news. It further strengthens our market position and means we now have a collective ability to drive forward with a fresh impetus to the benefit of our clients, customers and our employees. It’s very much business as usual for us all. Inspire Catering will continue to flourish, and we will continue in our existing roles running the business. We are very much looking forward to combining our systems and ideas to build an even stronger business going forward. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved in developing Inspire Catering into the successful business it is today; providing a high quality and innovative food service in Scotland. We very much look forward to the future and working together with CH&CO.”
Welcoming David, Lorna and the Inspire team to the group, CH&CO’s CEO, Bill Toner says, “For some time now we’ve had a strong desire to grow our market share and invest in Scotland. Inspire Catering is the ideal partner for us to achieve this and the merging of our Scottish businesses now makes us a significant and dynamic player in the Scottish market.
“Lorna and David have built a very strong company and culturally, we share many of the same values and ambitions. This has proven to be the right time to come together and take our combined business to new levels in the coming years.”
