Compass Group, the catering giant that provides food to offices, schools, and sports venues, has reported robust full-year results.
Over the 12 months to 30 September, the British firm saw its revenue increase 10.6% to $42.2bn, boosted partly by people returning to offices after the spike in home-working following the pandemic.
Operating profit rose 16.4% to $3.0 billion, supported by a 30 basis point improvement in operating margin to 7.1%.
Compass put its growth down to organic revenue gains and new business growth of 4.2%, which accelerated in the second half of the year.
Investments of $2.6bn in capital expenditures and acquisitions, including the purchase of Hofmanns, CH&CO, Dupont Restauration, and 4Service, underlined its strategy to expand in core markets while exiting nine non-core geographies.
Looking ahead, Compass said it expected high single-digit underlying operating profit growth in 2025, driven by organic revenue growth above 7.5% and further margin expansion.
Over the longer term, the company stated that it was confident in sustaining mid-to-high single-digit organic revenue growth and profit growth outpacing revenue.
“2024 has been a year of strong operational and financial performance, with net new business growth accelerating in the second half as expected,” said Chief Executive Dominic Blakemore.
“The business continues to successfully capitalise on the dynamic market trends, using its proven competitive advantages to drive higher revenue and profit growth.
“We have exited, or agreed to exit, nine non-core countries, further improving the quality of our portfolio and enabling us to better focus on our core markets with the greatest growth opportunities.”
Blakemore stated that to support that growth, Compass was investing in capital spending to drive net new business, and was currently prioritising strategic acquisitions to further enhance its sectorised approach to clients. “We have a proven track record of successful M&A in North America and are using that blueprint to unlock growth in other regions,” he said.
“The integration of recent high-quality acquisitions in Europe is progressing well, and we’re excited by the capabilities they bring to the group.”
