The concept of a service charge is not new as it is commonly levied in hotels, restaurants and cafes. Like all establishments in the Food & Beverage industry, Catering is service based. The implementation of a 10% service charge will cover administrative and processing costs of waste management, labour and equipment setup.
Unfamiliar to many, considerable resources are spent on:
(i) Procuring and maintaining buffet equipment (ie. table skirting is washed after every usage, food warmers are cleaned after each event etc)
(ii) Manpower and disposal charge to collect and process food waste,
(iii) Labour cost for delivery and setup of each order
While we have been absorbing this cost for years, rapidly rising overheads and cost of labour has proved to be demanding for us to continue to do so.