BRITISH catering giant Amadeus has gobbled up three more high-profile contracts in Northern Ireland at a number of Belfast City Council-run eateries.
The Irish News understands that Amadeus, part of the NEC Group in Birmingham, has taken over the contracts previously held by the family-owned Castle Catering, which has been supplying the hospitality trade for nearly 30 years.
And from this month it will be serving up the food offer at Belfast Castle's Cellar Restaurant, Malone House and the Stables Cafe at Lady Dixon Park.
It isn't known at this stage whether the existing staff at the three venues will transfer with the contracts or be made redundant.
It follows Amadeus taking over the catering earlier this year at the newly-refurbished Belfast Waterfront and Ulster Hall, when it beat off a clutch of rivals - including incumbent Mount Charles - to secure a five-year deal worth more than £16 million.
Belfast City Council confirmed last night that the new contract had been awarded to Amadeus "subject to the completion of a formal agreement".
Amadeus - which has more than 600 staff including 75 chefs - already delivers catering solutions to around four million visitors a year at the NEC Group venues and for a range of major clients including The Scottish Open, Cadbury World, Dudley Zoo and Stoneleigh Abbey.
It refused to comment on winning the contracts.
Castle Catering, as its name suggests, began life in 1988 serving the food at Belfast Castle, where it still has an office.
It was founded by industry veteran Carroll Falls, initially to service weddings and functions in Belfast Castle, but grew into as one of Ireland’s premiere providers of both in-house and outside catering services.
The company provided the catering at major events like the Ballymena freedom of the borough banquet for Liam Neeson in 2013, and for some of the events around the MTV Europe week awards two years earlier.
Falls (67), who has garnered a number of hospitality industry awards in his five decades in the industry, is still listed as a director of Castle Catering (Belfast) Ltd.
He told the Irish News: "Despite having had this contract for 27 years, to qualify under the terms of the tender document you had to have a turnover of £5 million.
"My company, unfortunately, doesn't meet that criteria and therefore I was disqualified at the first hurdle."
He added: "If I was a younger man, perhaps I'd fight this decision."
In its last set of accounts, up to the end of 2015, the company showed a shareholders funds deficit of more than £2,200 compared to a surplus of £67,300 a year earlier.
In July an application was lodged to strike the company off the register, but this was formally withdrawn on October 2.
Carroll Falls became director of a new catering company called Big Occasions, which was incorporated in December 2012, but he resigned two months later and the key director now is his son Chad (43).
In its accounts filed to the end of March 2015, it had shareholder funds of more than £67,500.
