Compass Group 'marginally ahead of expectations'

Compass Group reported encouraging trading results for the first four months of its financial year and said business was “marginally ahead of expectations”.

The company said its planned disposal of the Selecta vending-machine unit, which was announced in November, has generated “significant interest” and is expected to be completed by summer of this year.

Compass’s decision to sell Selecta, which generates annual sales of £476m from running vending machines across Europe and the UK, follows the group’s £1.82b disposal of its travel-restaurant division last year.

The caterer used proceeds from selling the travel restaurants to pay off debt, reduce its pension deficit and buy back stock.

In November Compass announced a 5.5% rise in annual profit, with profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and exceptional items for the year ended 30 September of £363m.

Compass is expected to issue a trading update on 29 March, ahead of posting its interim results on 16 May.

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By Kerstin Kühn

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