Compass reports good fourth quarter after strong growth in North America

29th Sep 2014 08:15

New business wins, good retention rates and inflationary price increases all helped Compass Group achieve a good performance in the fourth quarter.Regionally, the support services company saw further strong growth in its North America and Fast Growing and Emerging regions and a continued improvement in Europe and Japan.For the full year, organic revenue growth at constant currency is expected to be 4% and the operating profit margin is expected to increase by 10 basis points."We have continued to drive efficiencies across the business using our management and performance framework, MAP," the group said."As well as enabling us to deliver further improvement in the operating profit margin, these efficiencies are helping us to manage the negative volumes in parts of Europe and are being reinvested in exciting growth opportunities around the world."It also said free cash flow conversion remained strong.It saw a softening of volumes in some markets, but delivered a good organic revenue performance throughout the year in fast growing & emerging markets. However, the second half slowdown in the Australian offshore and remote sector has limited organic revenue growth in the region overall, which is expected to be around 8% for the full year.The group also revealed that as a result of the strength of sterling throughout the financial year, it anticipated a negative currency impact of 6.7% or £1,176m on the 2013 full year revenue and a 7% or £89m impact on the 2013 full year underlying operating profit.Despite this, its expectations for the full year remained positive, while in the longer term it said it continued to be excited about the "significant structural growth opportunities in our markets globally" and the potential for further revenue and margin growth.