SSP, the global travel concessions operator, has reported a 3.3% rise in like-for-like sales for the year to 30 September 2014, helped by strong performances in UK, North America and Asia Pacific.
Revenue for the year increased 4% to £1.83bn, while operating profit was up 12.3% to £88.5m.
Revenue increased by 1.9% in the UK to £720.5m, with like-for-like growth of 4.1% and net contract losses of 2.2%.
It said that like-for-like growth was particularly strong in the air sector, helped by the continued growth in UK airport passenger numbers over the last twelve months.
The company said that the net contract losses were primarily a consequence of the loss of an on-board rail contract during the year, together with the effect of the closure of a number of loss-making or marginally profitable units.
Underlying operating profit for the UK increased by 17.2% to £40.0m, while underlying operating margin increased by 80 basis points to 5.6%.
The group said: “As our largest business, the UK has been an early beneficiary of a number of programmes initiated during 2014, which have been successful in improving gross margins and reducing our operating cost base.”
The company said it had started the financial year in line with its expectations. It said: “Looking ahead, whilst a degree of uncertainty always exists around passenger numbers in the short-term, we are well positioned to benefit from the underlying positive trends in our markets.”
It said that it had made continued investment in its business with capital expenditure for the period at £76m.
The company said: “Our contract wins and renewals were supported by the further enhancements we made to our brand and concept portfolio in the year. New partnerships have been secured, for example, with the global media brand CNN, and new concepts have been developed with a number of partners, for example James Martin, the popular British chef.
“We also strengthened our existing partnerships with a number of major brands, including introducing new and innovative versions of tried and tested brands such as “YO! To Go” and “M&S Food to Go”, and extending our international agreement with Starbucks for a further five years.”
Kate Swann, chief executive of SSP said: “We delivered a good performance across the group with profit up 21%, and strong sales growth and cash generation. We also strengthened our balance sheet, providing capacity for continued growth.
“We made good progress on the implementation of our strategy and are particularly encouraged by the strong growth we achieved during the year in North America and Asia Pacific. We also began to deliver early results from our broad programme of initiatives to drive benefits from our international scale and are encouraged by the opportunities going forward.
“We have started the financial year in line with our expectations and looking ahead, whilst a degree of uncertainty always exists around passenger numbers in the short-term, we are well positioned to benefit from the underlying positive trends in our markets.”
