Compass Group has retained its contract at Goodwood racecourse but lost a multimillion pound deal at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's European Research & Development site, Caterer can reveal.

The company's Payne & Gunter arm has kept the estimated £7m-a-year turnover hospitality contract at Goodwood in East Sussex after a retender that will see it continue for at least another 12 months, taking the existing relationship begun in 1987 into its third decade.

Goodwood is home of motor-racing events the Festival of Speed, Revival and a National Hunt racecourse, which are all covered by the deal.

It is also home to Goodwood House, which is owned by the Earl and Countess of March.

But the good news was tempered as Compass lost a multimillion pound contract at Pfizer's European R&D headquarters in Sandwich, Kent.

Valued at nearly £10m in turnover over three years when Compass's Restaurant Associates arm retained it in 2003, the contract has gone to rival Sodexho, which already runs catering at a number of Pfizer's other UK sites.

A Compass spokeswoman said of the change: "There was no tender and the decision was not quality- or performance-related."


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By Chris Druce

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