FM 2010 Best Concept Awards Best Management Co. Concept: Sodexo's 'Fresh Inspirations'

WINNER: SODEXO HOSPITALS DIVISION

ENTRY: FRESH INSPIRATIONS

THE BIG IDEA: Fresh Inspirations is an excellent example of a foodservice management company using its corporate resources to develop a program that uses in-depth market research and taps industry best practices to design a program flexible enough to be implemented in different kinds of host locations.

The program takes a holistic approach, matching a retail foodservice strategy to the care-giving environment. It recognizes that staff, family and visitors all have roles to play in the healing process and that “working in or visiting a hospital is a stressful situation…and that dining is an integral part of the care-giver's well-being.”

Retail dining in the healthcare segment has traditionally focused on the basics: providing hot, filling dishes of the most basic sort to in-house staff and to visitors with more important things on their minds than what they ate in the cafeteria. That paradigm has of course shifted in the face of modern customer expectations, but for hospitals the challenge is how to offer that expected elevated level of food quality and service in a practical and affordable way.

Fresh Inspirations offers an answer to that dilemma with a sophisticated, flexible brand adaptable to a wide variety of environments. Encompassing all the modern top-of-mind components like sustainability (local sourcing, recycling, energy saving, etc.), wellness (healthy dishes, nutritional information, fresh ingredients) and diverse menu choice from a wide palette of centrally formulated recipes, it gives hospital clients a turnkey solution to retail dining.

Fresh Inspirations is currently in place in 24 locations with another 70 under development. Where implemented, Sodexo reports that it has increased the capture rate by up to 16 percent, check averages by 45 cents and customer satisfaction by an average of 18 percent.