FM 50: Compass Group North America

Compass North America is a division of London-based Compass Group PLC and accounted for 44% of the parent company’s revenues in fiscal 2012. The unit’s organic growth was up 8.3%, an increase over the 7.4% posted the previous year.

Compass services all of the onsite segments through operating companies with strong brand identification in their markets. Prominent brands include Eurest (B&I), Restaurant Associates (B&I, Arts/Recreation), Levy (Recreation), Chartwells (Education), Bon Appetit (Colleges, B&I, Arts), Flik (Education, B&I), Canteen (Vending) and Wolfgang Puck Catering.

In B&I, new contract wins include Adobe Systems, with 4,000 customers daily, the Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta and IDC Research. Also retained is a foodservice contract with Wal-Mart and with Procter & Gamble to provide food services in 15 countries. In fact, Compass clients around the world include 90 of the Fortune 100.

The Healthcare & Seniors sector delivered strong revenue and profit growth as it continued to win contracts with hospital networks like Ascension Health and CCRCs like the Cathedral Village & Retirement Community in Philadelphia. Also added is a new support services contract with the University of Kentucky Hospital.

High retention rates, new business wins and increased participation have driven organic revenue growth in the Education sector. A major addition was a 10 year contract to provide food and support services to Texas A&M University. Other new contracts include the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The Levy Sports & Leisure business delivered organic revenue growth through high attendance levels during the baseball season. Major new contract wins include the recently opened Barclays Center, home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, and the BBVA Compass Stadium, a soccer-specific stadium in Texas that is home of Houston Dynamo.

Compass also recently inked a deal with MyFitnessPal to give customers convenient access to nutritional information about its offerings in B&I cafés.

Recent concept introductions include Chef Jet (quick-serve traditional Asian) and Sono (Latin American fusion), while programs like Love Food Not Waste, Made Without Gluten, Eat Local and Choice Plus (nutritional vending snacks) satisfy various trends for healthful, sustainable foodservice.

Also notable are Avenue C, an automated café concept, and Compass’ Celebrity Chef Series, which brings notable culinarians like Jet Tila, Bal Arneson, Ken Oringer, Jim Bannos and Vikkas Kahanna to Compass managed sites.

On the sustainability front, the Morrison unit committed to implementation of its comprehensive wellness platform across all of its healthcare business while Chartwells introduced a school garden guide for K-12 clients and Bon Appetit extended its commitment to local sourcing by extending the initiative to encompass sustainably sourced seafood.