Airport company Elior boosts sales
Airports and healthcare drive sales growth at Elior
November 2004
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Double-digit growth in airport and healthcare catering helped boost annual turnover by 5% at contract caterer Elior in the year to 30 September 2004.
The French-based company - which operates in the UK under such brands as Avenance and Eliance - recorded sales of €2.5bn (£1.7bn).
Turnover rose by 5% in both the contract catering and the concession catering divisions, to €1.66b (£1.16m) and €887m (£618m) respectively.
France and Spain account for 75% of group turnover, but the UK is a significant market and contributes around 13% of overall sales.
In concession catering, the biggest growth (12.8%) came from airports as the travel market recovered from the impact of the Iraq war and the Sars epidemic.
A 5.8% rise in turnover from city sites at railway stations, museums and exhibition centres was buoyed up by new gains in the UK such as Edinburgh Castle, which started in April.
Other big wins included 16 House of Fraser restaurants in London and Scotland and the renewal of contracts at the Tower of London, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace. But growth in the motorway concession business was slower at 2.4%.
Elior's plan to exploit a large untapped market in concessions got a boost this month in the UK with the acquisition of Azure Support Services, a specialist sports and leisure caterer with an annual turnover of €22m (£15.3m).
During the year, Elior signed new contract catering deals worth a combined €185m in annual turnover. The biggest growth was in the healthcare and seniors market, where turnover grew by 17.7%. Education was up by 7.4% while the business sector dropped overall by 2.1% despite a "significant improvement" in the UK during the fourth quarter. UK gains included Express Newspapers and Sainsbury's in London.
Elior's goal for the current financial year is to improve turnover by between 8% and 10%
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