Compass Group, the world’s largest foodservice company, has reported a fall in full year 2009 revenues for UK and Ireland to £1.8bn, from £1.9bn the previous year.
The company said that a focus on cutting labour and other costs had minimised the impact on profit of the decline in hospitality revenues, with operating profit increasing to £114m from £108m.
Globally, Compass posted flat organic revenue for the full year of £13.4bn, as a result of a 3% reduction in like-for-like volumes.
The group said that the rate of volume decline had evolved quickly over the year, moving from an increase of 1% in the first quarter to a decrease of 5% in the third quarter, but that the fall of 6% in the fourth quarter indicated that the pace of decline had slowed and this trend had continued into the new financial year.
Richard Cousins, chief executive, said: "Compass has delivered an excellent performance in a challenging environment. Consistently high levels of net new business and a step change in operating efficiency, generating £161m of savings, have contributed to a further £100m of profit growth and 60 basis points of margin growth.
“Whilst in 2010 the prevailing economic conditions are expected to lead to broadly flat organic revenue growth, we are very encouraged by the pipeline of new business.
“In the medium term the group is set to enjoy the combination of structural growth in outsourcing and, as the global economies recover, a cyclical upswing in demand.
“In parallel, the continuing management of the flexible cost base and the ongoing focus on MAP should deliver further cost efficiencies and margin progression. In addition to this, the strength of the cash flow and balance sheet is enabling us to continue to reward shareholders and to accelerate growth through value creating infill acquisitions.”
