Deidre O’Neill appointed ‘future food offer’ director at Compass Group Ireland

Deirdre O'Neill

Role reflects a new approach to the market, including a greater focus on cloud kitchen operations

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Deirdre O’Neill has been appointed to the new role of future food offer director at foodservices provider, Compass Group Ireland.

The move comes as the contract catering business reshapes its operation to cater for new ways of working in the wake of Covid.

Compass Group Ireland’s foodservice solutions include full restaurant operations, café and coffee dock facilities, and self-service ‘grab & go’ offerings, as well as bespoke catering for events and meetings.

The business has adapted in the past year to new ways of employee working, and now also supports clients in providing pre-order and collect meal services, home delivery of food, and delivered meal options for offices and other workplaces.

With 15 years’ experience in Irish food and retail, Deirdre O’Neill joined Compass Group in 2015 to head up the marketing division and drive digital and brand communications.

She previously held marketing roles in leading FMCG companies, including Kildare-based O’Brien’s Fine Foods and Carroll’s of Tullamore, as well as with HMV Ireland Xtravision.

Deirdre O’Neill is a graduate in business studies from GMIT and has a Masters in marketing from NUI Galway.

Market adaptation

The new Compass Group Ireland role reflects a new approach to the market by the business, including more focus being placed on cloud kitchen operations. Even prior to the Covid-19 crisis, the company states it had been working on solutions for the growing incidence of hybrid working practices, which has been dramatically accelerated since then.

Deirdre O’Neill has strategically led the development, launch and mobilisation of Copper Pan Kitchen, a new central production kitchen for fresh delivered meals.  Staff in client companies can order online and get ready-made fresh meals delivered to their workplace. She is currently advising other countries within Compass Group, including Belgium, the United States and the UK, on setting up central food production operations.

In addition to this, the future food offer director is involved in the integration of Feedr into the Dublin market.  Compass Group acquired Feedr in March last year, a tech platform which digitises the office food experience, effectively moving canteens online. Compass has also developed an app called Time2Eat, which enables workers to book a time slot to visit a company’s dining area or canteen.

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