Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220067
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Rather than buying dining-hall food and supplies from various vendors, the university has chosen one company to supply it with 75 percent of such needs, university employees said last week. The company is the Salem branch of PYA/Monarch Foodservice Distributors, a unit of Sara Lee based in Greenville, S.C.
The university's self-supporting food-service division has long shopped for its meat and potatoes to ensure the lowest price; however, that required doing business with 10 to 20 vendors, each with its own delivery truck negotiating campus streets.
Under the new system, the division and PYA settled on a price list and services agreement and formed a five-year partnership, making PYA the university's main food supplier.
"This type of agreement is standard operating procedure within the private sector and has been for 15 years," said Rick Johnson, Tech's director of food services. "We knew we could save student money, and we just decided we needed to do it."
The $27 million contract represents a big boost in business for PYA's Salem operation, said Peter Jacob, vice president of marketing and procurement. PYA supplies restaurants, hospitals, schools and other customers from a 100,000-square-foot warehouse on Electric Road.
The university expects to save $1 million over five years by buying more goods in bulk and having them delivered directly to dining halls instead of to a warehouse on campus, which the university then would be able to close. All six warehouse employees are to receive jobs at dining halls or in residence-hall support, Johnson said.
Tech served 3.6 million meals to students, faculty and visitors last school year.
by CNB