Elior, the French catering company and owner of Avenance, has categorically denied that its UK arm is up for sale.
Gilles Cojan, the Paris-based company's 49-year-old managing director of international strategy, said that persistent rumours last year that Aramark was set to buy Avenance were completely unfounded.
"There is absolutely no desire within this group to get rid of our UK business. In fact, we are doing the contrary and have expanded our business in the UK with the purchase of Digby Trout Restaurants." This deal was completed in autumn 2002.
"I don't know what to say - the more I say it is wrong, the more you believe it is true. Elior does not need the cash, and the fact that we are acquiring companies in the UK is the best evidence that we plan to stay."
Last year the UK arm of Elior turned over €300m (£208m), accounting for 13-14% of the group's sales. "It is a very large, very significant and very strategic market," added Cojan.
The group's target was to achieve 4-6% growth a year organically. Taking into account acquisitions, which he expected to be mainly in France and southern Europe during the next 12 months, he predicted 10-15% growth for the group.
He said there was enormous growth potential in the UK market in areas where Avenance had a small or non-existent presence, such as healthcare, defence and education.
Cojan considered the business and industry sector in the UK to be mature, but he didn't rule out Avenance increasing its market share. He added that there was potential for growth in education and concession business and didn't rule out further acquisitions.
"If I could find a company which fits the strategy of Elior and would build up our concession and education business, then of course I would look at it. The price would be the key, though," he said.
Cojan said the cultural differences between the UK and French catering markets were no greater than the differences between the French and Italian markets and other markets throughout Continental Europe.
He said that Elior was a company that wanted to be considered as local, not global. "We believe in local concepts. You can't serve the same kind of food in Naples in Italy as you can in Edinburgh in Scotland. We want local concepts, and we don't export French people to cook, we use local manpower."
He added that the multinational catering companies all claim to have local concepts, but argued that this wasn't evident in their contracts. They were, in his view, too reliant on global brands that paid no attention to local requirements.
"You have to fit the contract to the needs of your client, and the concept has to fit with the customer," he said, adding that although soup sold well in the Netherlands there was little point trying to sell it to the Spanish.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper 29 January - 4 February 2004