There comes a time when size and market share count. Compass Group is now so big in North America, which delivered 56 per cent of revenues at the halfway stage, that it can tailor its catering offering to individual sectors and even subsectors.
This means that it can offer a targeted service to schools, universities or whatever, while gaining the efficiencies available from shared IT systems and back office functions. Fresh work picked up, such as at the New Las Vegas Arena and Oracle Arena, drove an 8.3 per cent rise in North American revenues in the half-year to March 31, comfortably exceeding City expectations and lifting group revenues 5.8 per cent to £9.7 billion.
Yet the story at Compass most recently has been the