After two years of shutdowns due to the pandemic, the City of Orillia plans to reopen its concession stands at local parks and arenas, but plans to outsource the work to a third-party contractor.
Although operated by the city since 2010, councillors at Monday’s council committee meeting voted in favour of hiring an outside contractor to operate the city’s concessions.
Closed since March 2020, the city’s concession stands posted losses in each of their previous two years of service, according to a staff report. In 2018, the services — run by city staffers — cost the city $20,632. In 2019, they cost $26,781.
The city continued to operate concessions at Rotary Place, Couchiching Beach Park, and Kitchener Park until the pandemic began, but it closed the concession at Brian Orser Arena in 2019 due to poor financial performance.
“Staff have concluded that outsourcing the operation of the concessions is the most feasible and economical option for the city at this time,” the staff report stated. “This option does come with risks such as staffing levels, operational plan, and revenue generation but these risks exist regardless if the city outsources the operation of the concessions or keeps the operation in-house.”
In February, the city issued a "request for quotation" in search of bids to take over its concession operations.
It received three bids, with Global Brand Food Services scoring the highest.
“Global Brand Foods brings with it significant experience in operating food concessions across multiple municipalities including City of Toronto, Bradford West Gwillimbury and the Town of Aurora,” the report stated. “Their proposal identifies brands that will be appealing to all users of the facility such as Coffee Time Coffee and they lean towards working with local vendors, when possible, such as Great Canadian Bagel.”
The staff report highlighted that outsourcing its concession stands would save up to $100,000 for the city in 2022.
“The position of a Concession Supervisor is currently approved and funded in the budget,” the report stated. “The recommended option will result in $20,000 annual revenue from the concession operator. A combination of this revenue with the cost avoidance (of hiring a concession supervisor) leads to an overall positive impact of about $100,000 for the City.”
Concession operations were outsourced to third-party contractors prior to 2010, the city staff report notes.
Decisions made at Monday’s council committee meeting are not final, and are subject to ratification at next week's council meeting.
