Catering group Compass has landed the task of feeding workers at Ford's UK manufacturing plants, including those in Essex, the company said today.

Ford's British workers are to be offered food from a range of franchises which include Burger King and Pizza Hut and Compass's own brand of Upper Crust sandwich stores.

The deal will see Compass manage catering, vending and hospitality for five Ford factories, but it has yet to finalise with which franchises will be used at each site.

Ford workers to be fed are at the body and assembly plants at Dagenham, and Halewood, Merseyside and at a foundry in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

The other two factories are at the UK parts distribution centre at Daventry, Northamptonshire and its Belfast components factory.

The company will be taking over the contract from food and management services group Gardner Merchant and the deal will see staff transfer to Compass.

Compass chief executive Michael Bailey, who worked as a trainee chef for Ford in 1964 at its then European head office at Warley, Essex, said: "This is a major new contract with a blue chip organisation and on a personal note, my own past association with Ford means I am especially delighted about it.

"I don't think there's a plant in Ford UK I haven't been in or been involved with, it was a fantastic place to start."

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