Compass Group wins huge £500m racecourse catering deal

Compass Group has won the race to become sole catering supplier to Jockey Club Racecourses, in a mammoth ten-year deal valued at £500m in turnover over the full-term.

From 1 July, Compass will extend its existing deal to cater and provide hospitality services at four Jockey Club owned racecourses to 14 sites across England.

Jockey Club stages many of the largest events in the racing calendar including the Cheltenham Festival, the Aintree Grand National and the Derby at Epsom, attracting in excess of 1.8m people to its courses a year.

Simon Bazalgette, chief executive of the Jockey Club, said: "This ten-year deal represents a fantastic opportunity for both parties to invest in the future and to provide improved standards of service across all aspects of our catering output.

"The announcement is the culmination of a long term strategic objective of Jockey Club Racecourses to bring together the asset we hold within the group so that we may optimize their leverage in negotiating an improved catering deal."

As part of the deal, Compass has undertaken to work with local suppliers, and to continue to serve dishes that are unique to the respective courses to help maintain the sites' individuality.

The ten-year deal is subject to reviews during its lifetime, and both parties have undertaken to meet a range of targets. To facilitate this, Lord Daresbury, chairman of Aintree Racecourse, will head the newly formed Jockey Club Catering Board.

Compass, which previously ran Aintree, Cheltenham, Newmarket and Warwick, adds Carlisle (previously catered for by Elior), Epsom Downs (Sodexo), Exeter (Posh Nosh), Haydock Park (Sodexo), Huntingdon (Elior), Kempton Park (Elior), Market Rasen (CGC Events), Nottingham (Elior), Sandown Park (Sodexo) and Wincanton (Wise Catering) to its leisure stable.

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By Chris Druce

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