Compass grows on ‘unusually strong' US performance
Compass has hailed "excellent" growth in North America and emerging markets, as well as a return to growth in Europe and Japan, for a rise in both turnover and profit for the six months to 31 March 2015.
The foodservice giant saw revenue climb 5.7% to £9.1b for the period, while profit before tax was up 4.9% to £637m.
The company saw new business of 8.5% and also managed to push its global contract retention rate up to 94.5% thanks to an "unusually strong performance" in North America, as well as improving trends in Europe and Japan.
Like-for-like revenue growth was 2.7% across all regions, which reflects some pricing and modest like-for-like volume increases.
In Europe and Japan, revenue was £2.8b for the period, up 1% on a constant currency basis. Operating profit was £205m, up 3%.
Compass said it enjoyed good levels of new business in the UK, Spain and Japan, with recent new contracts in the UK at Volkswagen Group and JLL. However France remained under pressure, as did the Nordic region where Compass said it had exposure to the oil and gas market.
Meanwhile, in North America, revenue was up to £4.7b - a rise of 7.8% on a constant currency basis. Underlying operating profit was £398m, up 8.2%.
In the fast-growing and emerging markets, revenue was up 6.1% to nearly £1.6b, while operating profit rose 3.8% to £109m. The business saw double digit growth in India and China, driven by new business wins, including foodservice contracts with the Asian Heart Institute and Ceat Tyres in India, as well as a new contract with Dulwich College, an international school in Beijing, China.
In a statement, Richard Cousins, group chief executive, said: "Compass had a strong first half of the year. We have delivered excellent levels of organic growth in North America and emerging markets. Encouragingly, Europe & Japan has returned to growth despite a mixed economic backdrop in the region.
"We have also continued to deliver good levels of operating efficiencies, which have enabled us to invest in the many growth opportunities we see, as well as deliver an improvement in the operating margin of 10 basis points.
"Our expectations for the full year remain positive and unchanged."
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