Case Study: Sanford
Auckland Fish Market
The Brief
When Sanford completely revamped the Auckland Fish Market — introducing ten new eateries, a communal courtyard, and a new customer-facing food experience — they needed a cleaning partner who could keep up. With 10 restaurateurs in the space, seating for 400, and around 1,000 customers through the doors each day, the stakes were high.
They put the contract out to tender, inviting bids from major cleaning and facilities management companies. Fresh Desk won it.
Procurement Perspective
Thomas Hinton, Group Procurement Manager, Sanford
"We awarded the contract to Fresh Desk because we believed in their social purpose. We felt that their training, remuneration, and treatment of staff would allow them to attract and retain the best people — and that this would in turn deliver a superior offering.
We haven't been disappointed. Fresh Desk have been outstanding — successfully recruiting for the contract, planning and implementing services to align with a very busy and stressful launch. The feedback from our retailers and customers has been universally positive.
Our association with Fresh Desk has also really helped our senior management understand what a Social Enterprise is, which has been really positive for the business. I'd happily recommend Fresh Desk."
Sustainability Perspective
"Sanford had been wanting to trade with a social enterprise for some time, but it had proved hard to find one that could deliver real shared value aligned with the services we required.
When we put the cleaning contract out to tender, Fresh Desk approached with a unique offering. Their proposal reflected a clear alignment with our own values and an authentic desire to work alongside Sanford in delivering sustainability outcomes.
This was compelling — although clearly more risky than contracting a larger commercial cleaning business. Absolutely, it was a leap of faith. But Fresh Desk's performance in this customer-facing role has been fantastic to date, and we can now see opportunities for other applications across our business.
Fresh Desk workers are highly engaged because they feel valued, and take pride in delivering exceptional service. They are paid the living wage and offered a range of professional development opportunities. For Sanford, partnering with Fresh Desk is an innovative opportunity to invest in changing disadvantaged workers' lives and driving positive change in our community.
Their model attracts and retains the best staff — a genuine competitive advantage. We believe you would seldom deliver a positive social impact and, at the same time, receive a far better product.
The commercials were cost neutral relative to larger for-profit suppliers. Fresh Desk can deliver this because, as a social enterprise with a limited balance sheet, they transfer value directly into their own workforce rather than to shareholders. This enhances human capital — their most valued business asset.
We believe this model could be replicated across office cleaning, facilities management, and labour hire — providing corporates with the opportunity to grow the social enterprise sector."
Marketing Perspective
"As part of the redevelopment of the Auckland Fish Market, one of our goals was to create a celebration of New Zealand seafood with great customer experience at the heart of operations. With that remit, we set out to find like-minded companies who would truly embrace and embody that ethos.
When we first met Nicole and Caroline, we were thoroughly impressed with what they were trying to achieve from a social enterprise perspective, and how engaged they were in seeing us achieve our vision. From that initial meeting, a true partnership was formed — we worked together on the set-up of cleaning services including the recruitment of staff.
It was hard to predict consumer uptake of the site, and whilst we continued to exceed footfall targets, the team at Fresh Desk never missed a beat. They were able to be reactive to consumer needs as we moved through seasons and other challenges. The calibre of the staff and attention to detail have been a true reflection of great leadership from Nicole and Caroline — and it's been a joy working with them."
Let’s work together