Granada-Compass lifts takeover title

21 December 2000 by
Granada-Compass lifts takeover title

Contract caterers played a busy role in the takeover tables this year, which were dominated by the £17.5b merger of hospitality giants Granada and Compass. This spawned a group which, among other assets, commanded more than half of the UK contract catering market.

But its rivals were not idle. Gardner Merchant finally adopted the name of its French parent, Sodexho, French group Elior snapped up Nelson Hind for £20m, Aramark formed a £300m joint venture with Campbell Bewley in Ireland, and Senate Food Services merged with Catercheck to create four new companies.

New names include BaxterSmith, set up by the founders of Baxter & Platts, and Wilson Storey, created in September by two former Granada Food Services directors and merged this month with Halliday Catering Services.

Granada Compass expects to complete the £3b auction of its Forte hotel division by March, with the Cavendish to be the first to go, for £60m to the De Vere Group, which also picked up St David's Hotels this year.

Marylebone Warwick Balfour's £76m acquisition of the Malmaison was voted corporate deal of the year by Knight Frank, while the chain's founder, Ken McCulloch, promised new upmarket (Columbus) and budget chains next year.

Robert Breare, former chairman of Fatty Arbuckles, also made waves when he formed Noble House Leisure with the acquisition of Taipan Taverns. He rescued 10 Fatty Arbuckles from receivership, bought the Oriental Restaurants group and is still believed to be eyeing up Wolverhampton & Dudley, which rejected his first bid.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking