A 3 per cent fall CHK in the Compass Group share price looked like a mean way to respond to Richard Cousins’s last set of full-year results before he heads into retirement. During more than a decade at the helm of the catering group, he has transformed the fortunes of a company that had grown quickly through acquisitions but lacked financial discipline. In short, it had become better known for serving up profit warnings and issues with the way the company is governed than decent grub.
Shares in the world’s biggest contract caterer, down 53p to £15.38p, have been soft for a while, largely as a result of profit warnings from its two nearest competitors, Sodexo and Elior. It may be that the market was