Sodexo Prestige wins contract with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

The contract, worth £5 million in total turnover, will see Sodexo Prestige provide services to Discovery Museum, Laing Art Gallery, South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, and Segedunum Roman Fort and Museum. This is in addition to the Great North Museum: Hancock where Sodexo is an existing provider. The contract, which begins this month, will include the provision of a range of services including event/conference management, banqueting and visitor catering services, as well as event sales and marketing services. Sodexo will provide locally themed menus at the venues. Dishes include broccoli and Swale Dale cheddar cheese soup, slow braised beef in Newcastle Brown Ale sauce, and Northumberland minted lamb rump with minted gravy. In May 2009, Sodexo Prestige won the contract to provide services to the Great North Museum: Hancock. Since then, Sodexo has managed two cafés and a range of brand new conference and event spaces that include a large exhibition space of over 500 sq meters, The Clore Learning Suite for meetings and receptions and The Hancock Café for evening entertainment. David Johnson, managing director, sport and leisure, Sodexo Prestige, said: "After the launch at the Great North Museum: Hancock where we have developed a successful venue proposition in the first year of operation, we are delighted to be chosen to provide our services to jewels in the TWAM collection. "Our focus is to provide a smooth operation, offer a great visitor catering experience, and to work with the museums to build on their strengths for corporate and private business."