Compass breaks through billion pound barrier

Contract caterer Compass saw its underlying profits before tax burst through the billion pounds barrier for the full year ended 30 September.

The firm achieved a 9.4% leap in revenue from £14.47bn to £15.83bn, which led to a 10.6% increase in underlying profit from £922m to £1.02bn (reported profit before tax: £958m from £913m).

Earnings per share beat expectations of 38.7p to rise to 39p from 35.7p last year, while the dividend per share rose 10.3% from 17.5p to 19.3p.

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Richard Cousins, chief executive, said: "Compass has delivered another strong performance this year. Including the impact of acquisitions, revenue has increased by almost 10% and we have delivered organic revenue growth of over 5%.

"Our relentless focus on efficiency has continued and, excluding the impact of Japan and restructuring costs, we have increased the underlying margin by 20 basis points.

"Increasingly we see our business in three geographic segments, North America, Europe & Japan and Fast Growing & Emerging Markets."

Sir Roy Gardner, Chairman, added: "The group continues to make excellent progress, despite the headwinds of food cost inflation, an uncertain economic backdrop in parts of the world and the impact of events in Japan.

"The future prospects of the group have given us the confidence to increase the final dividend by 10% and to announce a £500m share buy back over the next 12 months."

NR