Catering giant Compass says pace of sales recovery unclear

Compass Group, the world’s biggest catering company which supplies meals at offices and stadiums, on Thursday cautioned that the pace at which sales will recover from the Covid-19 lockdown is unclear.

The warning comes amid a possible increase in local lockdowns, the group led by Dominic Blakemore said.

Compass said in the three months to June, when stay-at-home measures “were at their most severe” in its major markets, group sales dropped 44%.

Revenue declined 14% for the nine months to June 30.

Shares in Compass lost 31p, or 2.8%, to 1045.5p.

As at the end of last month about 60% of Compass’ business was open. In London scores of offices remain underused, as people work from home.

Blakemore said: “We are working with our clients to help them reopen and bring their teams back safely.”

In May he told the Standard the firm was working on plans to make social distancing easier when staff canteen and corporate hospitality demand improves. Measures for offices include people pre-ordering and pre-paying for food, and delivering meals to desks.