SECTOR · CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
Corporate catering in Cartagena, run as a hospitality service
Daily lunch for your team, with a named supervisor, a written consequence if we fail, and a monthly report your HR function can present internally without having to reconstruct it from complaints.
The canteen is the one benefit your people assess every single day.
A wellbeing plan is judged once a year. Lunch is judged every noon, out loud and in front of everyone. It is the benefit with the largest complaint surface and, for exactly the same reason, the one that shifts internal climate fastest when it works.
MECHANISMS, NOT ADJECTIVES
How we solve it
Any supplier can say it is reliable. This is what that means in practice here, point by point, and it is what you can require from us in writing.
Executive dining, corporate cafeteria or general staff canteen
Four-week menu cycle with no repetition of the main course
Dietary requirements built into the cycle design, not handled as exceptions
Monthly satisfaction measurement, published exactly as it comes out
Executive report within the first five business days of each month
±15 % flexibility on the number of services without renegotiating the price
Direct hiring with full social security from the first shift
BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING
How to verify us without having to trust us
B4
Assess SAVIA before you commit
B5
Free assessment with a written report
B1
30-day paid pilot with free exit
B6
No-penalty exit for the first 90 days
Each with its verification mechanism and its limit of liability, in the SAVIA Shield. The four, with their fine print.
THE DIVISIONS THAT APPLY HERE
Which service solves it.
QUESTIONS FROM THIS SECTOR
What buyers usually ask us before contracting.
How is the price per meal calculated?
The price per meal is built from raw materials, production and service labour, thermal transport, tableware and disposables, the cost of the production site, administration and margin. When one quotation is far below the rest, it is almost always because one of those components was left out and reappears later as an extra.
The three most frequently omitted in this sector are the initial setup, the additional cost of special diets, and the Sunday and night-shift labour surcharges, which in 2026 weigh considerably more than in previous years because of the Colombian labour reform.
Is employer-paid food taxable income for the employee in Colombia?
Not within limits. Payments a company makes to a third party for its people's meals are not taxable income for the employee up to 41 UVT per month per person — COP $2,147,334 in 2026 — provided that employee's salary does not exceed 310 UVT, that is COP $16,235,940 per month.
This treatment is not exclusive to an operated canteen: meal vouchers and cards carry it too. The difference between the two options lies elsewhere. This is not tax advice — confirm the treatment with your tax function.
Meal vouchers or an operated canteen — which is better?
Vouchers are simpler and carry zero operational risk for you. An operated canteen transfers that risk to the provider and gives back two things vouchers structurally cannot: data on what your people actually eat, and the ability to act on health and absenteeism indicators.
If the objective is to deliver a benefit and nothing more, vouchers solve it. If the objective is to move an indicator — absenteeism, climate, turnover — vouchers have no mechanism to do so, because the money is spent wherever the employee decides and nobody measures what was eaten.
How much does the service cost?
We do not publish prices, because a price per meal quoted without knowing the operation is an invented number: it depends on volume, time windows, menu type, site logistics and special diets. You receive a proposal with pricing within 48 hours of the assessment visit.
Do you cover night shifts and weekends?
Yes. The operation is designed around the client's actual shift pattern, night shifts and weekends included. The labour surcharges for those hours are built into the price from the proposal and remain visible: under the 2026 Colombian labour reform a Sunday service costs considerably more, and hiding that only defers the problem.
What do we receive each month besides the food?
An executive report within the first five business days: participation per employee, menu-cycle compliance, the satisfaction measurement result, incidents for the period and — the section no operator includes — what went wrong and what was done about it.
That report is what allows an HR director to justify the spend internally, and it is also why the contract gets renewed without a price argument.
How quickly can you start?
The estimate is two weeks from signature for a standard operation, and we call it an estimate rather than a commitment because we do not yet have a reference operation that would let us guarantee it. The firm date is set in the proposal, after the assessment, once we know your site.
BEFORE YOU COMPARE PROPOSALS
What to read before you decide.
CONTRACTING GUIDE
How to choose a canteen operator without getting it wrong
Executive guide to choosing a corporate food-service provider in Colombia: the documents to request before comparing prices, and the costliest mistakes.
COMPARISON
Meal vouchers or an operated canteen: the comparison without spin
Meal vouchers or an operated canteen for companies in Colombia: operational risk, data, cost structure and which one actually moves an indicator.
TAX
Article 387-1 explained, with 2026 figures
How article 387-1 works in Colombia in 2026: employer-paid meals are not taxable income for the employee up to 41 UVT, with a 310 UVT salary cap.
Start with the assessment. It is free and the report is yours.
We visit your site, survey the operation and hand you in writing what you actually need. Proposal with pricing within 48 hours of the site visit.