A Melbourne company has been awarded the contract to operate all retail outlets inside the new Bendigo Health campus after no local businesses submitted a proposal to take on the lease.
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The 10-year contract awarded to Zouki is the company’s 15th foray into a Victorian hospital, a list that already includes the Royal Women’s and Box Hill hospitals.
Its five stores inside the first phase of the new Bendigo Health building will include a convenience store, organic eatery, coffee shop and salad bar.
A cafe will also open from breakfast until dinner and will be named by a competition among hospital staff.
The contract will create as many as 60 new positions, “some” of which Bendigo Health chief executive John Mulder said would be offered to hospital staff working at the shops and cafes inside the current campus.
Other positions will be advertised locally, he said.
“Having high quality food and retail choices will enhance the quality of the hospital experience,” Mr Mulder said.
Asked why no local businesses chose to submit a proposal for the contract, Exemplar Health chief executive officer Michelle Morrison, whose consortium was tasked with building the hospital, said Bendigo companies may have been overawed by the size of the lease.
“The lease document they would’ve had to sign was more complicated than they’d have to sign in Bendigo,” she said.
While some Bendigo operators initially expressed interest, they dropped out of the running before submitting their final bid, Ms Morrison explained.
The decision for a single company to operate all retail outlets came about after tours of other hospitals, none of which she wanted to copy.
She said “piecemeal” arrangements with different tenants at sites like Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital meant many retail spaces inside those buildings sat empty.
The hospital upgrade remains on track to open in the last week of January next year.
Having high quality food and retail choices will enhance the quality of the hospital experience.
- John Mulder, Bendigo Health CEO