Sodexo UK and Ireland (2008-2011)

29 February 2016
Sodexo UK and Ireland (2008-2011)

View the Sodexo UK and Ireland timeline (from 2012) here
View the Sodexho UK and Ireland timeline here
View the Gardner Merchant timeline here

TIMELINE


2011

  • December 2011 In an industry first, Sodexo signs an agreement with the International Union of Food (IUF) to respect fundamental rights at work ](/articles/341731)such as freedom of association and collective bargaining. Earlier this year, the UK arm signed the the industry's first National Framework Agreement with the Unite, UNISON and GMB unions.
  • December 2011 Sodexo loses its food service contract at Westminster conference and meetings site [Broadway House ](/articles/341565)to Wilson Vale.
  • December 2011 Sodexo completes its acquisition of asset management firm Atkins, including its managing contractor and managing agent businesses. The latter is renamed Sodexo Property Solutions.
  • December 2011 Sodexo partners with organic vegetable and herb supplier Rocket Gardens to give schools grow-your-own kitchen gardens through its Prestige, defence and education divisions as part of its "STOP Hunger" campaign. [Montem Primary School ](/articles/343664)in Hornsey Road, Islington, is an early beneficiary.
  • December 2011 Sodexo Prestige wins a multimillion-pound exclusive contract with Headingley Experience to provide catering, hospitality and retail services for Leeds Rhinos, Leeds Carnegie and Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The division achieves annual conference, business and events sales of £18m-plus.
  • November 2011 Sodexo is awarded the [Soil Association's Food for Life Bronze Catering Mark ](/articles/341175)for its primary school meals. It also has Marine Stewardship Council and Red Tractor accreditation, is a member of LEAF and is working with the RSPCA's Freedom Food.
  • November 2011 Sodexo Prestige launches the 90-seat [Grill restaurant at the Montcalm hotel ](/articles/341060)near London's Marble Arch as part of a 10-year, £30m deal to run the food and beverage operation at the property, which gains a five-star AA rating in 2012.
  • October 2011 Prestige London and client HMS Belfast plan a new quayside pavilion on Queen's Walk alongside the London landmark. Work is expected to complete by summer 2012.
  • October 2011 Sodexo wins the Best Group Contract Caterer Employer category in Caterer.com's second Best Employers in Hospitality 2011 Scotland awards.
  • October 2011 Prestige Scotland secures a five-year contract, seven-figure extension at Blair Castle in Perthshire, where it has catered for 15 years.
  • October 2011 Sodexo offers free school meals to more than 2,000 reception pupils from Bromley, Wiltshire, Salisbury and Rochdale for a week to encourage take-up.
  • October 2011 Mark Parfait joins from Lexington as head of food operations for Prestige London. Lindsay Tocher is promoted to chief operating officer for Sodexo's Global Offshore and Marine business.
  • September 2011 Sodexo wins two new contracts in Northern Ireland worth a combined £2.1m following its achievement of the ISO 9001 quality management accreditation - for the Northern Ireland Civil Service in Belfast and at Almac Group in Craigavon. The group has 500 staff across 80 sites in Northern Ireland.
  • September 2011 Sodexo Prestige loses the contract it has held at Blenheim Palace since 1994 to Searcys.
  • September 2011 Tony Leech returns to the post of [managing director of Sodexo Justice Services,](/articles/340131) the company's UK prison business.
  • September 2011 Sodexo group becomes Brazil's leading provider of on-site services with the €525m acquisition of Puras do Brasil.
  • August 2011 Sodexo relaunches its Healthworks package to offer a bespoke service including a gym offer and nutrition booklet. It is linked to Sodexo's 25-year-old Healthwise programme.
  • August 2011 Sodexo agrees to buy upscale French gastronomy business Lenôtre from Accor and will add its boutiques, receptions, events and three-star Le Pré-Catelan restaurant to the Prestige portfolio. Sodexo's 380,000 staff make it the 21st largest employer worldwide.
  • August 2011 Sodexo signs a seven-year, £3.5m contract with Altrincham Grammar School for Girls in Cheshire to supply catering on top of the cleaning services it has provided for four years.
  • July 2011 Sodexo is to offer products from RSPCA Freedom Food-approved farms at nearly 1,000 of its UK sites.
  • July 2011 Events caterer Sodexo Prestige caters at the golfing Open Championship at Royal St George's in Kent and the following Senior Open at Walton Heath in Surrey.
  • July 2011 Phil Hooper, Sodexo corporate affairs director, scoops the Food Service Caterer Award at the annual Cateys.
  • July 2011 Sodexo loses the catering contract it has held at Gatwick Airport for 25 years to Charlton House.
  • July 2011 Sodexo [relocates its UK and Ireland HQ ](/articles/339178)from Chapel Street to One Southampton Row in Holborn, London.
  • July 2011 The National Museum of Scotland - where Sodexo Scotland is one of the preferred caterers - reopens the Victorian wing of its Edinburgh museum following a three-year, £46.4m revamp.
  • June 2011 Sodexo's Hampden Park team scores a hat trick at the Official Football Hospitality Awards 2011. The group also wins awards for its operations at Everton FC and Newcastle United.
  • June 2011 Phil Andrews is promoted to chief financial officer for the UK & Ireland. Hugh Owens becomes director of reward, pensions and employee relations and Alistair Irvine becomes business development director at Sodexo Prestige Scotland.
  • June 2011 Prestige Scotland predicts booming summer business will increase its sales for 2011 by £1m compared with 2010.
  • May 2011 Sodexo health ambassador Matt Dawson launches [Be Part of It, Sodexo's new recipe range ](/articles/338273)that encourages balanced diets and healthy eating.
  • May 2011 Directors Table has been renamed Prestige London.
  • April 2011 Sodexo Prestige wins a contract to provide a range of services at [International Airlines Group's ](/articles/337953)Heathrow HQ and starts a three-year, £1.6m deal with Malaysian Airlines Golden Lounge at London Heathrow's Terminal 4.
  • April 2011 Sodexo buys healthcare FM service provider Zehnacker Ireland. It acquired parent firm Zehnacker Group in 2009 for €190m (£151m).
  • April 2011 Sodexo secures a five year, £2.5m contract to run catering and hospitality services at Wiltshire's New College Swindon.
  • April 2011 Sodexo scoops the Large Business Award at the annual Shine Awards while HR director Natalie Bickford makes the inaugural [Women 1st Top 100 ](/articles/337729)Most Influential Women listing.
  • March 2011 Rob Skinner joins Sodexo as dietitian; Stephen Holder (Be Original) wins the Workplace Catering Solution accolade in the Menu Innovation and Development Awards; and Sodexo climbs from 337 to 250 in the latest UK Superbrands list.
  • March 2011 Sodexo signs up with Locog to operate the Olympic Park South at the London 2012 Olympics and to cater at Glasgow football stadium Hampden Park, St James Park Royal Artillery Barracks, and archery venue Lords.
  • March 2011 Prestige Scotland wins a one-off contract to provide the catering for the Walker Cup golf tournament at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club in September.
  • February 2011 Sodexo Prestige scoops a five-year, £100m extension to its contract at Ascot Racecourse, where it has been the exclusive caterer since 1998.
  • February 2011 Sodexo Prestige Scotland plans to uses its 18-year operation at Aberdeen Football Club to [establish an event catering business in the north-east of Scotland. ](/articles/337112)
  • January 2011 Sodexo is the preferred supplier for the public and workforce catering deal for the [Olympic Park South ](/articles/336795)at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Its joint venture with Mike Burton holds the rights to 70,000 games tickets for its corporate clients.
  • January 2011 The Sodexo Foundation donates £17,000 towards a hospitality training scheme delivered by The Prince's Trust.
  • January 2011 Sodexo's Q1 group sales grow by 11%. Smaller growth of 1.8% in the UK and Ireland follows a 10.1% decline in the healthcare business, where the group lost the lucrative contract at London's King's College Hospital.
  • January 2011 Donna Sharpe, a chef at Doncaster Deaf Trust, is Employee of the Year at Sodexo's 30th Star Awards Ceremony. John Hughes from corporate services is the Sodexo Chef of the Year.


2010

  • December 2010 Glenn Ridsdale becomes director of financial performance.
  • December 2010 Sodexo Prestige scoops three accolades at the Eventia Awards - gold for both the Open Championship 2010 and Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums and silver for the O2 Golf Live Event.
  • December 2010 Sodexo becomes the first food service business to achieve Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification at all its UK outlets (929) serving fish. In 2009, it was the first to win MSC accreditation across all its education sites in 2009.
  • November 2010 Sodexo scoops the Diversity in Employment and Corporate Responsibility categories in the Springboard Awards for Excellence 2010.
  • November 2010 Sodexo wins two three-year education catering contracts worth a combined £2m which see it introduce its secondary school ‘For You' offer at the Enterprise South Liverpool Academy and its new ‘Be' menu offer at Leicester Grammar School.
  • November 2010 Sodexo raises £40,000 for the STOP Hunger campaign at its fifth annual fundraising foundation dinner. Sodexo HR director Natalie Bickford, becomes vice-chair of the board of trustees for People 1st.
  • November 2010 Sodexo apologises for a security breach that is claimed to have threatened the lives of more than 100 civilian workers at [Police Service of Northern Ireland ](/articles/335805)stations across the state.
  • November 2010 Sodexo rebrands its Kalyx UK prison business as Sodexo Justice Services, which also replaces the Siges name in France and Chile. The group has operated in the sector since 1993 and runs justice services at more than 110 prisons worldwide, including four in the UK.
  • October 2010 Suzy Kitcher joins from Artizian as business development director for Sodexo Prestige.
  • September 2010 Sodexo Remote Sites secures two new North Sea contracts - a five-year, £87.5m deal to provide offshore hotel services to Teekay Petrojarl and a one-year, £7m deal with Diamond Offshore Drilling. This year, it has won five new contracts worth £90m and renewed six deals worth £105m.
  • September 2010 Prestige Scotland wins two accolades at the Scottish Event Awards, for its work at The Open Championship at St Andrews and the Gateway Centre at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
  • September 2010 Bateaux London, Sodexo Prestige's restaurant cruise provider, is selected to participate in this year's [London Restaurant Festival.](/articles/335116)
  • September 2010 New appointments include Dinah Davies (divisional director for independent schools), Stewart Dunn (business development director, Scotland) and Julie Lardie (dietetics at Tillery Valley).
  • August 2010 Rugby Travel and Hospitality (RTH), a joint venture with the Mike Burton Group, wins the travel hospitality contracts for the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups in England and Japan respectively. Founded in 2007 to service the Rugby World Cup in France, RTH is also handling the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand and the prestige ticketing programme for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
  • August 2010 Prestige Scotland is to roll out [regionalised customer training programmes ](/articles/334519)for staff after a successful pilot at The Open at St Andrews.
  • August 2010 Sodexo starts a six-year, £14.4m contract to manage conference and hotel services at the 101-bedroom Stirling Management Centre, an enterprise of the University of Stirling where it won a £9m deal last year.
  • July 2010 Sodexo elects not to roll out calorie information on menus except where appropriate following the Food Standards Agency menu labelling trial.
  • July 2010 Sodexo agrees to pay a£13m settlement with New York Statefor overcharging 21 New York schools districts and the State University of New York between 2004 and 2009 by not passing on rebates from suppliers.
  • July 2010 Sodexo receives the "healthyliving award" at an additional 31 of its sites in Scotland, including Strathallan School, six courts, four Scottish Government sites, and Langside College. Its diversity and inclusion programme makes it the private sector winner in the Employers Forum for Belief and Employers Forum for Age awards. Sodexo's free-range-egg policy at the Met Office wins a Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards.
  • July 2010 Grahame Hart takes on the new role of [business development director for corporate services ](/articles/334317)while Kate Steadman fills the new position of government relations manager.
  • July 2010 Sodexo boosts nine-month worldwide revenues by 1.3% to £9.2bn but sales in the UK and Ireland fall to £744m from £787.6m. New contract wins include Heineken and Johnson & Johnson.
  • June 2010 Sodexo denies newspaper reports that its taxpayer-subsidised fine-dining restaurant at the Scottish Parliament Holyrood faces closure in a cost-cutting round because too few MSPs eat there.
  • June 2010 Sodexo achieves silver status for the fourth year running in Business in the Community's latest Corporate Responsibility Index. Its food manufacturing business Tillery Valley is awarded Carbon Trust Standard.
  • June 2010 Prestige Scotland signs an 18-month contract with Thirlestane Castle to run events at the 13th-century property in Berwickshire Scotland.
  • June 2010 Sodexo Prestige wins a hat-trick of directors' choice awards at the Stadium Experience - Official Football Hospitality Awards for its contracts at Everton, Newcastle United and Aberdeen football clubs, along with a silver and two bronze stars. Sodexo scoops two accolades in the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards, for Banqueting Chef (Steve Golding, Sodexo Prestige) and Contract Catering Chef (Derek Reilly).
  • June 2010 Rachel Osborne joins from international retail group Kingfisher as chief financial officer for the UK and Ireland.
  • May 2010 Sodexo secures a four-year, £11.6m extension to its catering contract with the Scottish Government, which it has serviced for nine years.
  • April 2010 UK and Ireland interim operating profit grows by 32% to £20.7m while turnover falls by 3.8% to £348m. While sales declined in B&I and education, the healthcare division did well thanks to PPP contract wins such as Manchester Royal Infirmary and North Staffordshire Hospital and the new £13m deal at Nuffield Health and Wellbeing. Group operating profit rose by 1.2% to £368m on turnover down by 1.7% to £6.47b.
  • April 2010 Sodexo's move into FM means it now offers more than 140 different services. Food accounts for half of its business.
  • April 2010 Sodexo stresses the importance of sustainability in its fifth annual corporate citizenship report. It makes its second appearance on the Ethisphere Institute's list of the world's most ethical companies and is one of just two foodservice firms to feature since the list began in 2007.
  • March 2010 Sodexo is celebrating 25 years of Healthwise - its healthy eating, well-being and lifestyle programme - with a series of events for staff and customers over the next six months, culminating in a September birthday party on HMS Belfast.
  • July 2010 Former Sodexo CEO and chief executive for Europe Philip Jansen joins Brakes Group as group chief executive. His move was delayed from March amidst reports of bad blood between the businesses.
  • March 2010 Sodexo Prestige starts a £5m contract to provide event and banqueting services for a number of venues for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.
  • March 2010 Sodexo ranks as the global leader in diversity in DiversityInc's top 50 and moves from 395th to 337th place in the latest UK Business Superbrands list. Stephen Holder (Sodexo for Origo) wins the Workplace Catering Solution in the Menu Innovation and Development Awards and the Sodexo team win a gold medal in the La Parade des Chefs competition. The group publishes its latest University Lifestyle Survey.
  • February 2010 Sodexo and Bunzl Catering Supplies unveil a new eco-friendly electric vehicle at Sodexo client the City of London Police in Wood Street. It will make its first deliveries to several key London sites in March.
  • February 2010 Sodexo appoints ex-England rugby player and 2006 Celebrity Masterchef winner Matt Dawson as an ambassador for health issues. New director appointments include Kevin Fitzpatrick (operational effectiveness) and Stuart Carter (investment and infrastructure).
  • January 2010 Sodexo secures an £18m, three-year [TFM contract extension with ING Bank](/articles/331755), a client since 1982. It starts a three-year, £4m deal to provide catering, retail, and hospitality and (separately) waste management services across four Thames Valley University sites.
  • January 2010 Sodexo scoops a five-year, £13m contract to service [15 Nuffield Health Fitness and Wellbeing Centres ](/articles/331638)across the UK. The group won a catering deal across 30 Nuffield Health hospitals in 2007.


2009


2008

  • December 2008 Sodexo will withdraw from the £6m Milton Keynes school meals contract it took over this April in July 2009, claiming it cannot maintain standards without additional financial support. It secures a five-year, £2m catering and cleaning contract with Banff and Buchan college in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
  • December 2008 Sodexo's £17m-a-year catering and soft services contract at King's College Hospital is re-tendered. Sodexho, which has worked with the hospital at Camberwell, Southwark, for at least a decade, has a 25% share in the hospital's 38-year, £65m PFI vehicle that came into force in April 2000.
  • November 2008 Sodexo Prestige lands a five-year, £38m catering deal with Premiership football club Newcastle United. Other sporting clients include
    Ascot Racecourse in Surrey, Everton Football Club and Hampden Park stadium in Glasgow.
  • November 2008 Sodexo announces a [recruitment freeze on support staffin a bid to save £40.5m annually](/articles/324558). Group annual turnover grows by 8.4% to £11b and operating profit by 15.3% to £559m. UK turnover and operating profit increase by 2% and 8.3% to £1.2b and £63m respectively. High profile deals include an extension to GlaxoSmithKline.
  • November 2008 James Greetham joins from Searcy's 1847 to head up Directors Table as business director.
  • October 2008 Sodexo loses its staff feeding contract at [Japanese electronics firm Canon's ](/articles/324129)HQ in Reigate, Surrey, and training centre in West Crawley, Sussex.
  • October 2008 The Scottish Government bans private contractors from tendering for catering and cleaning deals at NHS hospitals with immediate effect. The ruling does not affect existing contracts.
  • September 2008 Sodexo group signs a binding agreement with Burkart Verwaltungen to acquire more than 90% of German FM firm Zehnacker Group for £151m. The buy doubles Sodexo's size in the country and makes it the leader in the German healthcare market.
  • September 2008 Sodexo scoops £13m of new school meals and education catering contracts within the higher and further education, independent and state sectors and publishes its biennial [University Lifestyle Survey ](/articles/323366)(which started in 2004).
  • September 2008 Sodexo is retained by Northern Devon Healthcare Trust for five more years in a new deal worth £3.8m a year. It has provided a range of services to the NHS trust since 1997.
  • August 2008 Sodexo teams up with London restaurateurs Pascal Aussignac and Vincent Labeyrie - owners of the Michelin-starred Club Gascon and bistro-deli Comptoir Gascon restaurants - as part of its chef development programme.
  • July 2008 Sodexo wins two Ministry of Defence contracts worth almost £3m in combined annual turnover at RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, and at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. It extends its multi-contract deal with consumer goods giant Unilever in a three-year, £12m contract and scoops a £9m-a-year soft services deal with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. It loses its school meals contract at Biggin Hill School in Westerham, Kent.
  • July 2008 Simon Scrivens joins from Sodexo's food manufacturing business, Tillery Valley Foods, as managing director for healthcare.
  • June 2008 Sodexo's Sonia Reynolds at Brimscombe Primary School near Stroud is LACA's School Chef of the Year. Sodexo Prestige's Derek Wright wins the apprentice chef category in the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards.
  • June 2008 Sodexo loses its contract at sugar manufacturer [Tate & Lyle in London's Docklands ](/articles/321262)to Thomas Franks and its staff feeding deal at Guardian News and Media to Jill Bartlett.
  • May 2008 Sodexo is among a group of hospitality operators to develop a [Virtual Hotel Academy in London.May 2008 Sodexo launches its "Abetterday" TV showcase of promotional videosfor its 350,000 staff as part of its business rebrand.
  • April 2008 Sodexo wins £7m-worth of new business in education. This includes a three-year, £6m deal across 73 primary schools and nine day nurseries in Milton Keynes and a five-year contract at Prior Pursglove college in Guisborough, North Yorkshire.
  • April 2008 Sodexho boosts global interim sales by 9.2% to more than €7b. UK sales grow by 29.3% thanks to the 2007 Rugby World Cup - adjusted for currency fluctuations, UK turnover increased by 14.9% to £649m.
  • March 2008 Yann Coleou, former chief executive of Sodexo France, becomes chief executive of the UK and Ireland. He reports to Philip Jansen, who became European chief executive last March. Other senior changes include Mike Johnson (group president for international events), Andy Leach (executive director for corporate services, land technology and FM), Chris John (MD, Sodexho Prestige), Karl Martin (MD, defence), Michelle Hanson (commercial director) and Jane Bristow (MD, education).
  • March 2008 Sodexo group completes its €405m acquisition of Grupo VR's service vouchers and cards business, making Sodexo the co-leader in the world's largest market in this sector.
  • February 2008 Natalie Bickford joins from AstraZenec as human resources director.
  • January 2008 Sodexo is one of the first five contract caterers to agree to reduce salt, sugar and saturated fats in workplace meals in a Agency healthier eating drive by the Food Standards Agency, which publishes progress reports in September 2008 and April 2009.
  • January 2008 Sodexho Alliance simplifies its name to Sodexo to boost brand recognition and signal its expansion from contract caterer to full facilities management firm. The group has 342,000 employees worldwide across 29,000 sites.
  • 2008 During the year, the parent group moves its HQ from Marseilles to Issy-les-Moulineaux in the Paris region.
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