FM 50: Sodexo

Sodexo, Inc., is the North American division of a Paris-based world-wide contract management company that offers a variety of support services to businesses, institutions and public entities in 80 countries, realizing over $22 billion in revenues. The North American division generated around 37% of that total.

Organic growth in B&I increased to 6.4% despite the lack of a turnaround in employment at large companies and no change in foodservices patronage on sites. Revenue growth was led by the success of integrated service offers for clients such as Campbell’s Soup, General Dynamics, Circuit of the Americas in Texas, the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington, D.C., General Electric Co. and MIT Lincoln Library in Massachusetts.

In Health Care/Seniors, organic growth was 2.7%. New clients include Wesley Willows retirement homes in Illinois, Holy Cross Hospital, Chilton Hospital in New Jersey and Huntington Medical Hospital in Indiana.

Organic growth in Education was 6.3% reflecting facilities management contracts won in Fiscal 2011, particularly with Detroit and Lewisville Schools, and increased university restaurant patronage. Contracts won in Fiscal 2012 include Vermont State College, Mount Ida College in Massachusetts, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, California State University-San Marcos and the catering and retail dining operations at Kansas State University.

Significant recent initiatives include integration of all recipes into the MyFitnessPal database, creation of the Innovations 2 Solutions group in the B&I unit to research quality of life trends that can be incorporated into Sodexo’s offerings, the To the Max line of food stations that feature all meals under 550 calories, the Mindful cross-divisional wellness initiative and Local Artisan, a chef-driven sustainable food platform for B&I.

Other segment-specific initiatives included Did You Know Café for middle/junior high students and QBOT, a smartphone based rewards program for colleges. Two new food concepts are Guy Fieri on Campus, a fast casual retail concept developed with celebrity chef Fieri, and Wholly Habeneros, a natural/local-ingredient-focused Mexican concept.

Sodexo also recently decided to keep its North American headquarters in Gaithersburg after considering some other sites.

Other notable recent initiatives include a special allergen-free station concept for campus dining called Simple Solutions that was piloted on several campuses, and a partnership with celebrity chef Rick Bayless on a Mexican themed concept at Northwestern University.