Elior reveals positive profits

Elior, the French catering company and owner of Avenance, has announced better-than-expected interim results.

The catering group, which also owns Eliance and Digby Trout Restaurants in the UK, had predicted sales would grow by 4% this year. Interim growth to 31 March was 4.4%, marginally better than expected, and it now believed it would hit its profit targets.

In a statement, the caterer said it was on course. It predicted it would improve comparable growth by 4-6% and operating margins by 0.1-0.3% and expected pre-tax profits to grow by between 15% and 25%.

However, Elior noted tough trading conditions in most European business and industry markets, which had declined by 2.5% in first-half trading. The worst-affected were markets in the UK and Netherlands, where contract losses hadn't been offset by new business.

Elsewhere, education, healthcare and seniors had demonstrated good growth, improving revenues by 7.4% and 17% respectively. Most gains had been in healthcare, with four new hospital contracts opening - two in France and one each in Italy and Portugal. The opening of the new terminal at the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris boosted its sales in the concession market by 7.8%.

The caterer, which announced it was targeting this sector earlier this year, also won new contracts at the Paris Expo-Porte de Versailles and Earls Court in London.