Supply chain issues impacting Catering and DTS services

Supply chain issues are currently impacting our supply of both catering services and new IT equipment. Our Catering and DTS teams are working hard to mitigate these problems, but unfortunately there will be some impact on the level of service they are able to provide.  

Colleagues are asked to please be patient with any requests to these teams. When placing orders, please give as much notice as possible.

Catering services

Colleagues may notice some changes to the availability of items and menus at short notice due to stock shortages, with the supply of sandwiches being especially impacted.

We are also experiencing shortages of chefs due to staff shortages in the hospitality sector. Our top priority is supporting students as they start the new year, and therefore we are currently focusing on delivering our core services such as Clever Cuisine Plans for Residential Students.

For delivered catering, the Venue Reading team are contacting colleagues as soon as possible when issues arise, and colleagues should be aware that substitutions may happen. However, please be reassured that all events continue to be successfully catered for and no one has had to go hungry!

Colleagues should not order food from off-campus (e.g. from supermarket) for delivered or event catering; all catering orders must be made through Venue Reading to ensure that all health and safety (e.g. allergens) and procurement rules are followed.

IT equipment  

DTS has also experiencing difficulties sourcing IT equipment due to the global chip shortage, and this has created a number of unexpected delays. The good news is that the situation regarding the availability of items such as laptops is starting to improve with deliveries expected from October.