Compass Group confident about performance in 2008

Compass Group, the world's largest caterer, has issued an upbeat trading statement.

The company, which will announce its half year results on 14 May, said despite soaring global food costs it remained confident of delivering an improvement in margins for the six months.

Compass has forecast organic turnover growth of 5% for the period with its performance in North America, Continental Europe and the Rest of the World territories particular strong.

In a statement the caterer, which is feeding staff at Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 building, said: "We have had an encouraging start to the year with a continuation of the positive trading momentum seen over the last 18 months."

Compass went on to state that it remained confident its positive performance would be maintained during the second half of 2008.

The group's £1b share buyback programme is also now complete.

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By Chris Druce

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