Terms of Business

The following terms are in regard to our corporate catering and buffet lunch services.

1. Minimum Quantities

We cater for any number of covers. Each menu will state the minimum number of covers it can be ordered for at the price shown.

For orders to be delivered, there is a minimum order value of £20.00. This can be made up of several smaller orders.

2. Placing Orders

All orders must be placed by email either using our website enquiry form or a normal written email. You are welcome to phone the order in first or call first to discuss the order and ask any questions you may have but this must be followed up by an email so we have an electronic record of the booking.  

Please give as much notice as possible when ordering, it is better to place the order with advance notice and then alter any details closer to the day, rather than wait until very close to the delivery day to book. See below for more precise lead times.

In cases where there is any conflict between date and day in an order email, Cater UK will follow the date as the correct piece of information, until advised otherwise by the customer.

3. Ordering Lead Times

A general rule is:

Standard Menus: 24 hours notice.

Executive Menus: 48 hours notice.

There are some exceptions to this so click here for a more precise set of absolute deadlines.

*Please note, these are the absolute deadlines for placing such orders as shown. You should always give as much notice as possible even if its weeks or months. Please get your orders in as early as you can and then amend them closer to the time if you need too rather than hold on until the last minute to place an order. 

4. Same Day Bookings

        We are no longer able to take same day bookings due to the lead time being too short.

5. Office Hours

        Our office can be contacted between 0900 and 1600 Monday to Friday.

6. Cancellations

         All cancellations made two days before delivery day: 

         Free of charge.

         (Unless a customer has already been made aware of any special cancellation conditions due to the                      nature of their order.)

        Cancellations made the day before delivery day, up to 1100:

        Will be subject to a 35% cancellation charge of any amounts over £50.00.

(So orders below £50.00 can be cancelled free of charge, for an order of £70.00 the charge would be £20.00 x 35% = £7.00.) This is to cover us for loss of stock when orders are cancelled at short notice.

        Cancellations made the day before delivery day, after 1100:

        Will be subject to 50% cancellation charge to cover the loss of stock which we would not be able to return.

        Orders cancelled on the day of delivery:

        Charged at 100%.

6.1. Changes to Bookings

        Any booking can be increased or decreased by any amount up to 48 hours before delivery day.

        Changes the day before delivery day:

Should you wish to increase or decrease your booking for the next day, we can accept changes up to 12:30 the day before.

After this time it will not be possible to increase or decrease an existing order due to product quantities having already been submitted to our order collation system for stock ordering purposes.

It will still be possible to cancel your order but this will be subject to cancellation policy, see condition 6 above.

7.0 Delivery Times/Windows

7.1 Please state on your order the 'Latest time of arrival' that you would like to receive your delivery at your location, not including any time you need to set up/organise after delivery has been made. It is always best to leave a 30 minute window between delivery time and serving time. Cater UK will deliver at or before your stated delivery time and the earliest we would deliver would be 08:30 for a lunch order and 06:30 for a breakfast order.

7.2 If no delivery time is requested on your order, we will work to a default delivery window of 08:30-13:30 for lunches and 08:30 to 10:30 for breakfasts.

7.3 In the event that you do not have adequate refrigeration on site and the delivery is made more than 1.5 hours prior to your stated delivery time, we would leave your delivery in a cool box which will keep the food cold for up to 6 hours.

7.4 There is no additional charge for a cool box delivery, however should you request a cool box delivery for a delivery window in which we would not have normally deployed one, this can be arranged and does carry a small additional cool box delivery charge, see 8.2

8.0 Delivery / Handling Charge

8.1 All orders incur a small delivery/handling charge. This can vary at short notice due to fuel price fluctuation or expansion of ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zones) and CAZ (Clean Air Zones). Currently, the charge is as follows:

Based on the weight of an order (Determined by net price)

Order Value £         Singular Delivery/Handling Cost Per Order

                                                              As a % of average order value

£0 - £50                 £3.95 + vat             16%

£50 - £100             £5.95 + vat               8%

£100 - £200           £8.95 + vat               6%

£200 - £300           £11.95 + vat             5%

£300 +                   £14.95 + vat             3%

Please note, this is 'per order', not 'per delivery' or 'per person'. If you have a breakfast order and a lunch order (or 2+ separate orders of any type) both/all delivered together, the charge still applies to both/all orders as it is a 'handling charge', not just a delivery charge. Each order needs to be picked, packed, checked and scheduled for complete refrigerated transport which also required monitoring of critical temperature control points.

8.2 If we are more than 2 hours earlier than your 'Latest time of arrival', we will leave your order in a cool box. If you request a cool box delivery in a delivery window in which we would not normally have deployed one (generally within 2 hours of your stated delivery time) there is an additional £4.95 per cool box used. 

8.3: Breakfast Deliveries. All deliveries from 08:30 onward are subject to normal delivery/handling charges, see 4.1 above. For earlier than 08:30 deliveries, please follow the below scale of charges:

        Delivery between 0730-0830     £15.00 + vat delivery charge

        Delivery between 0630-0730     £25.00 + delivery charge 

        A minimum of £15.00 order value must apply before delivery charge is added.

9. Receipt Of Deliveries

All orders must be signed for as proof of delivery and at that point, responsibility for the order in all aspects is handed over to the customer. Any shortages must be notified to us within 24 hours.

10. Payment Terms

Our standard terms of payment are 30 days from the date of the invoice.

For any other terms to be arranged, please contact our office and our accounts team will be back in touch shortly.

All first orders must be paid for in advance by credit card or cheque and after that a credit account will be opened for all further orders (subject to credit checks).

We accept payment by BACS, Credit Card, Cheque, Cash.

11. Bank Details

All payments can be made to:

Account Name: Cater UK Ltd

Sort Code: 09 01 51

Account Number: 1763 4182

12.0. Free samples and '15% off your first two orders' offer can only be delivered to new corporate customers and only to business addresses. Free samples can only be ordered once by the same company in a 6 month period. All companies who order the sample must be registered at companies house. 72 hours notice required. 

12.1. The '15% discount off your next two orders' is only applicable when the orders are at full menu price. If you have had special menus at preferential prices arranged, we will offer 10% off your next two orders.

13. Pricing, Charges & Tariffs

All prices shown on this website exclude VAT at the current rate.

There are percentage surcharges for bank holiday, weekend, evening and very early morning deliveries, please call a member of our bookings team for an up to date list.

All pricing shown on this website supersedes any previous printed literature unless an agreement has been made with a customer which will be bound by its own conditions.

There will be a price review every January as a normal function of the business to keep in line with supplier costs and inflation. Customers are not notified of changes in price on an individual basis if any occur, instead we simply update the pricing on the website and all orders placed thereafter will reflect the new pricing scheme. Any other pricing changes throughout the year for whatever reason will normally be notified to the customers.