ABSTRACT
In most industries, the concept of outsourcing is considered from the perspective of firms considering the outsource decision. But in the hospitality industry, there are whole sectors of the industry that exist to supply outsourced products and services, namely hotel management companies, contract foodservice providers and inflight caterers. Many of these firms are large, global companies, such as Four Seasons, Sodexho, Compass and Aramark. Whilst in flight catering, two companies – LSG Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet – have a combined global market share of 55% (Jones 2004). Hence in this chapter, outsourcing is considered from both the client firm and the supplier perspective. However, the discussion of the supplier perspective will be limited, as almost no operations research into this has been conducted.
