ISS India's Food Services Vertical targets growth

   New Delhi, (India) 21 August 2023

·       It currently serves more than 1 Mn meals per month with a focus on nutrition

·       Plans to launch the global brand ‘UNITY COFFEE’ in India

ISS Facility Services India, a subsidiary of the global facility management services and workplace experiences leader ISS A/S (ISS Group), and one of India’s leading integrated facilities management companies aims to expand its food services vertical rapidly. Apart from other facility management segments, one of ISS India’s important verticals is a specialised business of food services that creates culinary experiences while setting new standards for health and well-being, productivity, and sustainability – contributing to a happier, more creative workforce.

ISS India Food Services curates dining experiences that fuel bodies and minds. The freshly prepared, healthy food nurtures well-being, promotes productivity, and achieves results, and thereby ISS goes the extra mile to deliver memorable service moments with a human touch.

As a part of this expansion strategy, ISS also plans to launch its global brand Unity Coffee” – ISS’ barista-led, on-site coffee “shop” in India. A well thought initiative with three main objectives; creating a community, crafting honest menus, and supporting wellbeing, Unity Coffee is a premium barista coffee brand with a focus on ethical sourcing and social value with a charity donation at the heart. Unity Coffee is also aligned with the company’s sustainability goals by introducing a charitable donation 10% of coffee kilo price which will be invested back into the community. It is the perfect location for employees to gather for a morning ritual or to energise for their next meeting or journey home.

According to Mr. Aksh Rohatgi, CEO, and Country Manager, ISS India, "ISS expertise in culinary foundations by co-creating personalised food programmes with each client that fit evolving business needs and priorities. Our concepts, such as “Works” brings the dining experience to manufacturing and production environments and “The Food Place” that delivers to the office environment. Our effort is to reduce food waste, reuse kitchen waste to generate biogas energy, and move to 100% induction-based kitchens which significantly helps reduce carbon footprint, these are just a few examples of our dedication to promoting sustainability while improving employee health and well-being. We are looking at expanding our food services offerings and solutions to corporates looking to deliver the best food experience to their teams."

Commenting on the expansion plans, Shakti Jalali, Chief Commercial Officer, ISS India said, “We have been achieving significant progress in our food services vertical and we see tremendous scope in India for innovation and further expansion through new initiatives. Today, for customers, food is not just about taste but also about making responsible decisions. Our idea is to connect the taste experience with responsibility towards a sustainable community.”

She further added, “We are also planning to launch our global brand Unity Coffee in India as it exemplifies this thought well and takes forward the message to our customers.

As part of its mission to serve good quality healthy food, ISS has been providing services and putting an educational aspect to it. For one of the clients, ISS created a 'Healthy Tomorrow' concept by creating a series of educational posters on eating right. In addition, daily awareness sessions are held at their medical centre, where any staff member may meet with a dietician for a consultation. This results in a healthy diet that leads to a healthy spirit, mind, and body. In addition, ISS encourages employees to develop more nutritional diet plans by shrinking their plate sizes or following task-based diet plans

One of ISS India’s successful strategies has been the Traffic Light strategy - here, the food is categorized in reference to its fat content. Low-fat and high protein meals like salads, chicken and soups are given the green light, and vegetables are labelled yellow, whereas more fatty foods are coded Red. The on-site chef provides the dietician with the menu, who classifies the menu items using the traffic light system.

Notes to the Editor:

·       Another exciting initiative has been Task-based diet plans - ISS created specialised menus based on the employees' activity levels. They divided the dining space into three areas: active, normal, and sedentary. Active is for the blue-collar workers in the plant, who burn a lot of calories in their work. Normal is for those who don't have a lot of physical activity and would need around 800 calories per meal. Then Sedentary would be those who require about 600-650 calories. This change required a certain amount of communication and change management as well. The 650-calorie diet was really challenging because you basically don't get anything besides soup, salad, and fruit, which was really a change for people. They knew this would be an uphill battle; however, ISS felt it could win them over by increasing awareness, which has helped.

·       ISS has created “The Food Place”, a retail concept, that is a great way to provide our client employees with convenient access to food and drink options while promoting a sense of community at their workplace. The Food Place has its own concept bring on board variety of food options to cater to the different tastes and dietary requirements, its own branding and décor, representing food from all over India and international cuisine.

·       “Farmology Kitchen” is a healthy choice of comfort foods offering an array of delicious seasonal and locally inspired dishes and from around the globe. The “Farmology kitchen” supports a vegan and vegetarian diet, using the finest friendly foods. “Sesame + Soy” takes you on a journey to the heart of Asian cuisine.

·       For a client, ISS developed a solution that reuses kitchen waste and converts it into energy. Using the equipment set up by ISS, 50 kg of vegetable waste can be converted to generate 2.5 hours of biogas energy. Today biogas provides 15% of the fuel in the client's kitchen, and the goal is to reach 70-80% in the future.

·       ISS caters to approx. 1 Mn meals per month and wants to expand this with infusion of new clients rapidly. ISS India's mission is to continue to serve high-quality, healthy food while promoting sustainability and employee health and well-being.