SECTOR · CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
University and private-school food service in Cartagena
A campus cafeteria competes with everything outside the campus. You do not win that by making it compulsory: you win it with an offer the student would choose anyway, and an operation the institution can audit.
A compulsory cafeteria is a cafeteria nobody defends.
When the internal offer is worse than the one across the street, students leave, the institution loses sanitary control over what its community eats, and the concession turns into a reputation problem instead of a service.
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.
Cafeteria operation designed to be chosen, not tolerated
Food service for teaching and administrative staff
Institutional events, graduations and academic congresses
Documented sanitary control over everything served on campus
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 do I choose a canteen operator in Colombia?
Ask for four documents before comparing prices: a current sanitary licence for the production site, public liability insurance including product coverage, a written sanitary crisis protocol, and technical sheets for the preparations. An operator who cannot show them today will not have them on the day they are needed.
The most expensive mistake in this decision is comparing quotations that are not comparable. A price per meal may include or exclude tableware, thermal transport, service staff, special diets and the initial setup cost. Equalise the scope before you look at the number.
What is the minimum headcount to contract a canteen?
Daily food service under contract starts from 20 employees. If you would rather not sign a contract, DAILY delivery starts from 25 people per order, placed by 4:00 p.m. the previous day. The two minimums measure different things — headcount on one side, order size on the other — because they are different operations.
And if your company is smaller than that? There is still a way in: the events line has no headcount minimum and covers what a small company usually needs — a board meeting, a client visit, a celebration, a month-end close. Write to us with the date and the real number, even if it is eight.
Can we exit the contract if the service does not work?
Yes. The contract allows termination without cause and without penalty during the first 90 days, with 30 days' notice. Before that you can start with a 30-day paid pilot you may leave freely. After day 90 the same 30-day notice applies to both parties.
The reason we can offer this is the same reason you should ask for it: the burden of proof is ours, not yours. A supplier who asks for trust up front is moving the cost of checking onto you.
How can we verify how you operate before signing?
Before you contract, we walk you through the operating model, the quality and food-safety protocols, the service structure, the team accountable for it and the indicators the operation is measured by, together with the current sanitary documentation. And if you want to see the performance in a live operation, the 30-day pilot exists for that: you can exit without penalty.
What we do not do is open the production site to visits before signing, and we would rather say so here than have you find out by asking. Controlling the access of external personnel to processing areas is precisely one of the things Good Manufacturing Practices require — Resolución 2674 de 2013 — because every unplanned entry is a cross-contamination risk on food that is about to be served. Verification does not disappear with it: it runs on the same documents a sanitary auditor would review, and on the pilot, which happens at your site and with your people.
Are we exposed to our supplier's labour liabilities in Colombia?
Yes. Colombian law establishes joint liability of the contracting company for the labour and social-security obligations of its contractors. A provider that hires by the day or through intermediaries to reduce payroll charges is transferring that exposure onto your balance sheet, where your parent company's audit will find it.
We hire directly, with full social security from the first shift and no intermediate structures. It is not a differentiator we invented — it is the law, and a significant part of this sector does not comply with it. Ask any bidder for payroll evidence, not for a statement.
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.
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.