Kylemore to take over all on-campus catering and food outlets (apart from SU shops_

Crow92

CramCycle wrote: »

It is despicable that it happened this way, I was talking to the staff in Cafe Fresca who mentioned similar things (they did not hear about the tender at all until the review was going on and applications were closed). The owner of Cafe Fresca/O'Briens was removed from a meeting by security when he went to the meeting at the last meeting to ask why he had not been informed.

They did not even give anyone more than 2 weeks to close down, I am no legal expert but I would have thought that there would have been a minimum of a month or a stated time in the contracts before removal could be enforced.

Hopefully they will re hire your old staff as that is the only decent thing left to do but I fear my final year working here will be one of packed lunches.

PS will miss your staff that worked in the Conway over the years, lovely people through my undergrad/postgrad etc.

Is this the Cafe Fresca/O'briens in Richview?

Do you think if people Boycotted these new establishments it'd make a difference? It's disgusting reading bobbykerr's post about what happened. and no student representation?

bnt

I walked past the former Arts Cafe today, and there was a sign on the door announcing the creation of something called "Java". How original.

The sign was full of buzzwords: "Organic" - "Fair Trade" - "Sustainable" - "Handmade" - and so on. My translation: "Overpriced" - "Annoying" - "Pretentious" - "Sloppy" - and so on. Good luck selling that stuff to the overstretched staff and penniless students at a state university in the middle of the Great Recession. :rolleyes:

Oasis_Dublin

CramCycle wrote: »

When is the forum re opening? time to go back to my classic of sausage beans and chips. SU bar is to far to walk on lunch break.

I don't think it is until April. That's presuming it opens up at the same time as the new Student Centre.

Antiundead

Long time lurker here, but decided to break my silence and let you guys know that I have it on excellent authority that there is going to be a Starbucks.

Tayto2000

I'd be expecting a legal challenge on this given the people involved, from outside, without knowing the details, the tendering process seems dodgy. The fact that the current operators appear to have been ambushed is pretty telling I think.

Given the timeframe (Three weeks to get the outlets up and running with new operators) an injunction or other holdup could mean they won't be open for business on the 12th...

parker kent

Antiundead wrote: »

Long time lurker here, but decided to break my silence and let you guys know that I have it on excellent authority that there is going to be a Starbucks.

That's already been announced, it is no secret.

StradBally

What'll hppen here is that the student body will talk a lot about the situation and recommend that all students boycot the Kylemore outlets...but this is Ireland....they'll do NOTHING about it, only talk.

Oasis_Dublin

StradBally wrote: »

this is Ireland....they'll do NOTHING about it, only talk.

+ 1.

Raphael

UCDSU Constitution wrote:

Article 2 – Fundamental Objectives
The objectives of the Union shall be the promotion and furtherance of any matters of interest to its
membership, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, in particular:
(i) To act as the recognised means of communication between the members of the Union and the authorities of University College Dublin, to be known as “the University”.
(ii) To act as a representative body for its members and other persons registered as students of the University.
(iii) To promote the principle of democratisation at all levels of higher education through collective and individual participation of the members of the Union.
(iv) To provide and manage social, recreational and commercial services for the benefit of its members.
(v) To promote discussion and research on all matters of interest to the Union, and particularly on matters pertaining to the education and welfare of the members of the Union, and other persons registered as students of the University.
(vi) To promote the unity of the organisation and contact between members through assisting clubs, societies and other organisations of students within the University.
(vii) To seek to promote the objectives of the Union through developing and maintaining good relations with students and student bodies in other higher education institutions, both within Ireland and elsewhere.
(viii) To develop and maintain good relations with all employees of the University.
(ix) To secure and defend the fundamental rights of its members set out in Article 4 of this Constitution.
(x) To strive for an effective and united system of national student representation.
(xi) To develop the Irish language among its members, and throughout the University.

This is the Unions brief, as defined in the Constitution. I'm curious as to which part of this fighting the Kylemore "monopoly" (Quotation marks because there are at least 9* other places you can get food from on campus) falls under. It could fall under (ii), I suppose, but it's not like they've polled the student body, and realistically all that comes down is them going "Hey, the students aren't happy about this."

The Union isn't involved in this. It's a contract between UCD and a private company. They can no more impact this than the Britvic thing. And if the college is getting more money out of it, then I support this measure. In 2006 UCD dropped Early Irish as an undergraduate course, as a cost saving measure. I'd much rather have my lunch range slightly reduced than that, how about you?

*

• Centra
• Student Bar
• Restraunt
• Café Brava
• The Grind (currently closed for the summer)
• Sports Café
• Library SU Shop
• Science SU Shop
• The Kiosk (Student Centre SU Shop)

Red Alert

To the guy from Insomnia, thanks very much for coming on to talk to us on the forum. I'm surprised to see that there was staff representation on that committee, as there was no formal or informal consultation with any non-involved parties to my knowledge. The SU also need to come clean and tell the students what their knowledge of this was, if any. Questions were asked in the past about their involvement in the closure of the Sports Bar, and a satisfactory answer either way was not forthcoming.

The monopoly situation is also going to really hit home once the weather gets too bad to sit outside. There's a serious shortage of indoor places to eat one's own lunch, and time will tell how "exclusive" the Kylemore use of the spaces actually is. If you've a bike or know someone with a car though, there are a few off-campus options: The Mosque have a restaurant that used to do good lunches (it's been a while since I was there though), and there also decent pub lunches in Kitty O'Sheas and Ashton's in Clonskeagh. There's a very well hidden Cafe in the Clonskeagh business park, and you can get to it through Richview. If you're just looking for coffee (or ice cream like I was a few days ago) the Barista On Duty coffee shop near the Montrose Hotel is walkable. But it's ridiculous you have to go that far to get a lunch. I think I might make a (second) serious effort to start preparing lunch the night before.

I presume having individual staff or students contacting the UCD Commercial Office would be futile, as we would all most likely be ignored.

Red Alert

The Union isn't involved in this. It's a contract between UCD and a private company. They can no more impact this than the Britvic thing. And if the college is getting more money out of it, then I support this measure.

Are the SU shops not also subject to the Britvic deal? Then it's not just between UCD and SU, is it?

graduate

This says everything about the modern UCD. Catering facilities have an effect on the welfare of staff and students and on the general ambiance of the campus. Consequently, a responsible university would have some process to establish the views of same on opening hours, types of catering offered etc and would frame their policies on franchise in the light of that information. There is a secretive aspect to how such decisions are made in UCD which says a lot about the place.

Raphael

Red Alert wrote: »

Are the SU shops not also subject to the Britvic deal? Then it's not just between UCD and SU, is it?

The SU are subject to the Britvic deal, because that deal covers the entire campus, where the SU shops are located. They were not a party to the deal, but they were affected by it. Am I making sense, I'm wary I may not be... Is late.

Killer Pigeon

UCD™

RandolphEsq

Insomnia should open across the road where that small garage is or Cranford Centre. A nice spacious-feeling place with lots of seating.

Michael Moyles

OmegaRed10 wrote: »

I'd like to know where the story of the Cafe Fresca owner being removed by security has come from. Id imagine that Campus Security/Services wouldnt remove anybody (esp. from a private meeting...) unless they were told a situation had become violent or something.

I doubt any security were asked to remove someone for asking a question - its not Stalinist Russia in there!

My name is Michael Moyles and I own Cafe Fresca( Formerly O'Briens). I have operated cafes on UCD campus since 1999. I tendered for my two units in the normal course of events. The process was very rushed as the tender was announced on the 22nd June with a tender submission deadline of 12th July. The original tender documents were incomplete and had to be completely re-issued on the 5th of July yet UCD did not change the deadline date. That allowed 5 working days to complete a very intricate tender.
The MD of Kylemore rang me on the 28th July to arrange a meeting at 5pm that evening between his company and my staff. That was how I learned that Kylemore had been awarded my licences. My staff were very concerned and asked that I attend the meeting. The meeting was conducted by the MD's son, Paddy Hogan and their head of HR, a woman called Amanda and was attended by staff from all the affected cafes.In the course of the meeting, Amanda glossed over a point about some of the cafes being closed for renovations. I asked her what Kylemore's policy was re staff during these closures eg temporary layoffs etc. She avoided the question by responding that she did not know which cafes would be closed or for how long. I pressed her on the question as it was a very worrying issue for staff and they needed to know if they were going to get paid during these closures. She became very angry with me, accused me of attempting to undermine the meeting. I continued to press her to answer the question which she refused. At this point, Paddy Hogan called for security to have me removed. Security arrived but did not enter the room. One of the staff from Insomnia took up the point but Kylemore were not forthcoming with any answers. In fact, Kylemore were unable to answer many of the questions raised by the staff. When the meeting ended approximately 15 mins later, the security guard accompanied all of us from the building.
All the staff from the 7 affected units are entitled to 30 days notice for transfer to another company under TUPE. They have been given 9 working days notice. That is the notice I have been given to completely clear out my cafes after nearly 12 years on campus.

Red Alert

I'm delighted to see you come on here Michael, but I'm absolutely disgusted by what seems to have gone on in relation to yours & Insomnia's franchise. I'd love to see you set up again somewhere else, like in the Cranford Centre. UCD will no doubt spin this move as "greater choice" for students and staff, but the only winners in this seem to be the Commercial Office & Kylemore.

Michael Moyles

Thank you for your comments. We always tried to provide the best, freshest produce we could. We prepared all the veg ourselves so salads would be a fresh as possible.
It was our plan to bring in freshly made pizzas this year as I had our Tornado ovens re-programmed and we planned to price them from €6.95 for a 9" pizza to €9.95 for a 12" pizza. I know some thought we were expensive but I had up to 14 staff in the Health Science cafe making everything to order and the "rent" charged by UCD was higher than the equivalent on the high street without any of the security of tenure, as is now sadly, quite clear. I very much appreciate the positive comments and look to the negative comments to see possibilities for improvement. Rgds Michael.

errlloyd

Michael I believe you did a fantastic job, I used to walk from Roebuck to Health Science for Cafe Fresca., I am simply disgusted by the treatment you seem to have been subjected to. Based on my own experience in UCC and with Java in TCD I imagine that I won't be the only student missing you in a few months time, I hope some sort of legal aid can help you recover some of the losses from this transition.

mloc

I have to credit the Cafe Fresca staff on good work throughout the years, particularly the two women who used to operate the till etc. Very nice and personable, great customer service.

eilo1

God I am going to miss the chicken pesto wraps!! :(:(

getleft

Disgraceful behaviour by both the Commercial office and Kylemore. Ideally, the monopoly should be boycotted by all students. In the real world though most people don't care enough to vote with their feet.

Red Alert

Presumably the SU will also include the Kymopoly outlets in their guide for Fresher's?

Oasis_Dublin

I think that may already have been printed. Interesting point, though.

jan shyr

I cannot believe I am hearing about all of this now. This topic got lost among topics started by annoying people who are not even in college.
I guess food situation is about to become worse (it wasn't that great before).
Good thing Apple Green is not that far from Conway if one doesn't mind the walk.

Am I glad to have a kettle and a microwave at my disposal for the next semester

Desmo

CramCycle wrote: »

It is despicable that it happened this way, I was talking to the staff in Cafe Fresca who mentioned similar things (they did not hear about the tender at all until the review was going on and applications were closed). The owner of Cafe Fresca/O'Briens was removed from a meeting by security when he went to the meeting at the last meeting to ask why he had not been informed.

They did not even give anyone more than 2 weeks to close down, I am no legal expert but I would have thought that there would have been a minimum of a month or a stated time in the contracts before removal could be enforced.

Hopefully they will re hire your old staff as that is the only decent thing left to do but I fear my final year working here will be one of packed lunches.

PS will miss your staff that worked in the Conway over the years, lovely people through my undergrad/postgrad etc.

I agree 100%. I used to use Insomnia every single day for coffee and often for lunch. The staff were great! I really like the coffee. The staff were really good at doing in house catering for events/vivas/etc. I despair sometimes at how dense w****** in offices can make this up as they go along. I wish the procurement office would procure a life or a hobby and do something effing useful instead of this ridiculous farce.

Disgruntled of Stillorgan

Desmo

Antiundead wrote: »

Long time lurker here, but decided to break my silence and let you guys know that I have it on excellent authority that there is going to be a Starbucks.

There is a sign up in the Conway saying that there will be coffee from Starbucks but it will not actually be a Starbucks place; they will just sell their coffee like lots of places sell Bewleys coffee.

Desmo

Michael Moyles wrote: »

My name is Michael Moyles and I own Cafe Fresca( Formerly O'Briens). I have operated cafes on UCD campus since 1999. I tendered for my two units in the normal course of events. The process was very rushed as the tender was announced on the 22nd June with a tender submission deadline of 12th July. The original tender documents were incomplete and had to be completely re-issued on the 5th of July yet UCD did not change the deadline date. That allowed 5 working days to complete a very intricate tender.
The MD of Kylemore rang me on the 28th July to arrange a meeting at 5pm that evening between his company and my staff. That was how I learned that Kylemore had been awarded my licences. My staff were very concerned and asked that I attend the meeting. The meeting was conducted by the MD's son, Paddy Hogan and their head of HR, a woman called Amanda and was attended by staff from all the affected cafes.In the course of the meeting, Amanda glossed over a point about some of the cafes being closed for renovations. I asked her what Kylemore's policy was re staff during these closures eg temporary layoffs etc. She avoided the question by responding that she did not know which cafes would be closed or for how long. I pressed her on the question as it was a very worrying issue for staff and they needed to know if they were going to get paid during these closures. She became very angry with me, accused me of attempting to undermine the meeting. I continued to press her to answer the question which she refused. At this point, Paddy Hogan called for security to have me removed. Security arrived but did not enter the room. One of the staff from Insomnia took up the point but Kylemore were not forthcoming with any answers. In fact, Kylemore were unable to answer many of the questions raised by the staff. When the meeting ended approximately 15 mins later, the security guard accompanied all of us from the building.
All the staff from the 7 affected units are entitled to 30 days notice for transfer to another company under TUPE. They have been given 9 working days notice. That is the notice I have been given to completely clear out my cafes after nearly 12 years on campus.

This is insane. Thanks for the update Michael. Good luck with fighting this.

parker kent

Desmo wrote: »

I despair sometimes at how dense w****** in offices can make this up as they go along. I wish the procurement office would procure a life or a hobby and do something effing useful instead of this ridiculous farce.

Whilst I disagree with the decision, I don't think we should say things like that here. They are after all just people doing a job and there may be perfectly valid reasons for the decision. It definitely seems it could have been handled much, much better and the previous operators seem to have got a raw deal. But the above strikes me as a pretty immature response.

Yi Harr

Desmo wrote: »

There is a sign up in the Conway saying that there will be coffee from Starbucks but it will not actually be a Starbucks place; they will just sell their coffee like lots of places sell Bewleys coffee.

Elements used to do the same thing. Starbucks coffee sold by Kylemore.