About
The person across the table, on your side of it.
Hello, I’m Mary Bee.
MB Partnerships is my independent procurement and catering consultancy, built on many years working in the catering and support-services industry, on the inside of the contracts, tenders and day-to-day service delivery that schools depend on.
That experience taught me two things. First, that a well-run contract genuinely changes life in a school: better food, calmer sites, fewer surprises in the budget. Second, that schools are too often on the back foot, negotiating against specialists, working from templates, and expected to take supplier reporting on trust.
I set up MB Partnerships to put that expertise on the school’s side of the table. As a sole trader, I keep my overheads low and my involvement personal. Every review, every specification and every evaluation panel is me, start to finish, accountable for the result.
If that sounds like the kind of support your school or trust could use, I would be delighted to hear from you.
“The only interest I represent at your table is yours.”
What I stand for
Four principles behind every piece of work.
Independence
I take no commissions, hold no supplier relationships that could colour a recommendation, and have nothing to sell you except honest advice.
Rigour
Good procurement is detail work. In specifications, evaluation models and contract terms, the value is won or lost in the small print, so that is where I spend my time.
Honesty
If the right answer is “keep your current caterer and fix the contract”, that is the advice you will get, even when a tender would earn me a bigger fee.
Partnership
The best outcomes come from working alongside your team, not around it. Your business managers and site staff know things no consultant ever will.
Why work with a sole trader?
Because you get the organ grinder. There is no account manager between you and the expertise, no junior learning on your project, and no minimum-engagement machinery to feed. My costs are low, so fees stay fair; my name is on the work, so standards stay high.
And because independence is structural, not a slogan. With no supplier partnerships and no framework to promote, every recommendation is free to be exactly what your school needs.
Let’s have that first conversation.
Whether you have a tender on the horizon or just a feeling that your current arrangements could work harder, an initial conversation costs nothing and comes with no obligation.