Special Award

THIS year's Special Award goes to someone who has changed the face of contract catering in the UK. His company has, over the past 10 years, helped to drag the sector out of the institutional canteen culture of old and into the 21st century.

It spearheaded the use of high-street brands in the workplace, adopting the marketing techniques of the commercial world to help raise standards and improve profitability. It was also one of the first companies to realise the potential for expansion into areas outside the traditional workplace catering market. Railway stations, airports, hospitals, even football grounds and racecourses are now all seen as part of the natural habitat of the contract caterer.

Francis Mackay joined Compass in 1986 as finance director. He was a key member of the team that led the management buyout from Grand Metropolitan in 1987 and then successfully floated on the London Stock Exchange.

World leader

In 1991 he became chief executive of the company and since then he has managed its growth from a UK business with sales of £250m to a world leader with sales of £8b in more than 70 countries. The number of its employees has grown from 20,000 to 265,000.

Compass has grown to its current size not just by winning new contracts but through a string of shrewd tactical acquisitions. The list of takeovers includes events caterer Letheby & Christopher and railway station specialist Travellers Fare in 1992, airport caterer SSP in 1993, and the £300m takeover of Canteen Corporation in the USA in 1994. A year later it moved into Continental Europe, buying Eurest from Accor for nearly £590m.

A big part of Mackay's success has been his ability to woo the City of London. Compass became the darling of investors who liked its clear message and its huge potential for growth. Arguably, this success has not only benefited Compass, it has also helped to raise the status of the contract catering sector as a whole, given it respectability, and acknowledged its professionalism. Mackay himself was recognised as a strong and visible leader, combining humour and enthusiasm with a clear vision for the company.

Perhaps the sternest test of his leadership has come during the past year with the complex merger and demerger with Gerry Robinson's Granada, a deal which threw the normally supportive City into a panic, leading to a slump in Compass's share price and the forced selloff of the former Forte hotel chains acquired as part of the deal.

Mackay, however, came through. The Forte chains were sold for a respectable £3.26b, money which is already being used to make further contract catering acquisitions around the world.

And behind the scenes, the UK businesses of Compass and Granada Food Services have been quietly forged into the single most powerful force in UK contract catering, bringing about expected savings of £20m this year, retaining 95% of their contracts and delivering 8% like-for-like sales growth. It's the kind of performance that's come to be expected from Francis Mackay. n