Case Study: Lancashire County Council achieves paperless catering, improved compliance and £65k annual savings with Civica Saffron

Saffron helps Lancashire County Council transform school catering operations

Lancashire County Council, which provides around 65,000 meals per day across 492 primary schools, 29 secondary schools and 23 care facilities, faced inefficient, paper‑based catering processes, limited top‑down visibility and complex compliance challenges. To meet its wellbeing, commercial and sustainability objectives, the council selected Civica and its Saffron catering management software to replace disparate systems and centralise operations across nearly 550 sites.

Civica implemented Saffron (with modules such as Saffron Check, Saffron Menu and optional Civica Cashless), deploying about 485 tablets and roughly 1,000 licences to create a cloud‑based, paperless platform. The solution delivered immediate annual savings of £65,000 from removed paper costs, cut up to 70% of paper‑related expenses, improved real‑time compliance and reporting at individual kitchen level, supported COVID‑secure communications, enabled online ordering for over 80% of products, and helped LCC better track food costs and drive ongoing productivity gains.

Lancashire County Council

Nigel Craine

Head of Schools & Residential Care Catering