By Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Communication. Photo: Lasse Møller Badstue, AAU Communication

Sandwiches for meetings. Buffets for anniversaries. Dinners with external partners. Going forward, when AAU staff members have to order catering, the food will no longer come from outside. The Executive Management decided that in the future catering must be ordered from either AAU's canteen operators or in the café at AAU Innovate. Restaurant visits in Aalborg must, as a general rule, take place in the restaurant in AAU Innovate.

Inflation is putting pressure on suppliers

Extraordinary price increases, especially for food and electricity, have made it difficult for suppliers to make canteen, café and restaurant operation at AAU economically feasible. Among other things, because there are many canteens to operate at AAU, and because the university's contracts require that prices must be attractive to students and staff.

A lot of catering is ordered from outside

Today, at least a third of the university's catering for meetings is done with suppliers other than Jespers Torvekøkken and Cheval Blanc Kantiner which run the canteens and AAU Innovate's café and restaurant, respectively. The list of suppliers is extensive, and it is far from all that the university has agreements with. The Executive Management wants to change this picture with the new guidelines.

In the future, an exemption from a head of department or deputy director will be required if you wish to use a restaurant other than the Faculty Club in AAU Innovate on campus in Aalborg.

- If a department holds a conference at a hotel or conference centre, the principle of choosing AAU's own supplier of course does not apply. The cost of catering is typically included in an overall package with the stay itself, says the university director.

Following the decision, AAU reduced the number of agreements on purchasing catering with other external suppliers. In addition, the Finance and Accounts Department is currently looking into how many restaurant agreements AAU will need in the future in Aalborg, Esbjerg and Copenhagen.

Adjustment of contracts

The university is currently in dialogue with suppliers about the possibility of making adjustments to the current contracts within the framework of the Public Procurement Act, including, for example, changed opening hours or self-service. It is not possible to make such adjustments to the contract regarding canteen operations, and the university therefore decided that the canteen operation will be put out to tender in the autumn.

AAU is terminating the contract with Jespers Torvekøkken which expires on 31 December 2023, and a new contract will take effect on 1 January 2024. A steering committee at AAU will be tasked with making decisions on the content of the tender and the bid ultimately selected; a user group will have the opportunity to provide input on this.