SSP
Market value £3.2bn | Net debt £262m | Earnings 20.3p
While Kate Swann was running WH Smith, she gained a reputation as a ruthless and effective cost-cutter. Since leaving to take the helm at SSP in 2013, she has put into practice a similarly pragmatic approach, famously slicing an inch off the baguettes sold at its Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza outlets and instructing staff to cut the number of teabags in a large tea from two to one.
Such moves might appear penny-pinching, not to say slightly absurd, but they can do wonders for margins in a low-margin business and those pinched pennies can soon add up in a company operating 2,500 outlets at hundreds of airports and railway stations in more than