Contract catering companies are facing a difficult future, with turnover falling 25% to €900m in 2013 compared to €1.23bn in 2008, broadcaster Nos said on Monday.

The downward trend is a result of a shrinking workforce with less money to spend, a rise in the number of flexible workers who do not use company canteens and cuts in the healthcare budget leading to economies in catering in care homes.

‘Many companies are bankrupt,’ Jos van Straten from catering organisation Veneca told the Nos. ‘And companies which have kept their canteens open are offering a much reduced selection.’

At the moment, many companies subsidise their workers’ lunch but that is gradually changing. ‘If the subsidy stops, the lunch will become more expensive and workers will go elsewhere,’ Van Straten told Nos. ‘Even though eating outside the company restaurant costs more.’

Figures from market research agency Foodstep show that the number of workers with access to a company canteen fell from 60% to 54% over the past four years.