Compass Group

Origin Compass Group has its origins in a company which was founded by Jack Bateman in 1941 as Factory Canteens Limited; subsequently, the company became known as Bateman Catering. Bateman Catering and Midland Catering were acquired by conglomerate Grand Metropolitan in 1967 and 1968 respectively and a management buy-out from Grand Metropolitan followed in 1987 when the Compass Group was formed. Corporate growth Compass Group purchased Morrison Management Specialists and then merged with Granada plc as part of a planned strategy to separate the media and catering interests of the latter. The two companies demerged in February 2001 to form Compass plc and Granada Media. and Plural in Germany. In June 2019, Compass Group PLC announces that it has signed an agreement with Fazer Group, an international family-owned FMCG and direct to consumer group, to acquire Fazer Food Services. Association with UN and armed forces Compass Group's subsidiary ESS became a UN-registered food vendor in 2000 and then won contracts to supply UN peace-keepers operating in Sudan, East Timor, Liberia, Burundi, Eritrea, Lebanon, Cyprus and Syria. ESS was contracted by the U.S. Marine Corps, the 82nd Airborne Division, the British Ministry of Defence, the Coalition Provisional Authority, along with the major defense contractors Fluor, RMS, Bechtel, and most notably KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton) under the U.S. Army troop support contract called LOGCAP III to provide dining and construction services at desert bases and encampments in Kuwait and Iraq The company also acquired Integrated Cleaning Management in 2013. CEO Richard Cousins' death On 31 December 2017, CEO of the company at the time Richard Cousins was killed in a seaplane accident at Cottage Point near the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, Australia. The pilot of the six-seat de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver seaplane had been adversely affected by carbon monoxide poisoning from a cracked exhaust system. Cousins planned to retire in 2018, with the intention that he would be succeeded as CEO by Dominic Blakemore on 1 April; the succession was brought forward to 1 January 2018. The acquisition of Unidine was completed on 31 December 2017. Unidine is a pure-play food service provider in the rapidly growing healthcare and seniors market in the United States. Feedr acquired In 2020, Feedr was acquired by Compass Group for $24m. Compass Group acquired Feedr just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed the company to use Feedr's online technology to support both the business and people as it was able to send free meals to those in need using Feedr's technology. Medusa Ransomware incident On or before 4 September 2024, a Medusa Ransomware affiliate hacked the Australian subsidiary of Compass Group, claiming to have stolen upwards of 785.5 gigabytes of data and demanding US$2 million. The company was hacked again around 18 September 2024, with the hackers demanding US$100,000. Latest history In January 2024, Compass Group acquired its British rival foodservice company CH&CO. In July 2025, the company announced the acquisition of Vermaat, a Dutch catering company, for £1.3 billion from Bridgepoint Group. ==Operations==

Compass Group Index is the parent/holding firm Compass Group owns the following brands and businesses: • 14Forty • 24 • All Leisure Hospitality • Best Vendors Management • Bon Appétit Management Company • Canteen Vending • Chartwells Higher Education • Fresh Ideas • CH&CO • Chartwells K12 • Compass Community Living • Crothall • DeltaFM • EAT Club • Eurest Support Services • Foodbuy • Fulfill • Grill and Co • ICM • Payne & Gunter • Plural • Rapport • Restaurant Associates • Steamplicity • SmartQ • The Jockey Club Catering • Unidine • White Oaks It also does the cleaning, housekeeping, waste management, building operations, maintenance, gardening and outdoor services for schools and educational facilities. Compass Group operates several owned brands including Trattoria Pizza, Mondo Subs, (UK & USA) Grab&Co Food to go and Spice of Life (UK Hospitals) as well as operating Costa Coffee, Subway, Papa John's Pizza, Chick-Fil-A and Starbucks under license. Compass Group also operates several owned service systems including Steamplicity, and Trim Trax. 14forty is a UK wide facility management firm. Eurest Support Services (ESS) is the subsidiary specializing in harsh-environment/large-scale food service and facilities management. Its primary clients are military forces and other security services, UN conferences and some Blue Beret army rations, major defense contractors, and construction, mining, the UN and oil exploration and production facilities worldwide. Foodbuy is a foodservice procurement organization which operates in both North America and Europe. In the UK, Foodbuy UK was created after the acquisition of Acquire Services in 2015. It was awarded a contract by the Department of Health and Social Care in 2018 to buy food on behalf of the National Health Service. About 10 staff are transferred from NHS Supply Chain. Integrated Cleaning Management is a major UK and Irish retail, leisure, health club industry, hotel and commercial cleaning firm with 10,000 staff and 5,000 contracts as of 2014. It has several NHS contracts weld by A+ NHS cleaners clean hospitals, Pulse Hospital porters, who are NHS Hospital porters and Medirest Health Sector which do other tasks such as disposing of surgical waste, catering and cleaning. == Sustainability ==

In 2024, Compass Group committed to sourcing 100% cage-free eggs by the end of 2025. ==Criticisms of Compass Group==

A summary of Compass scandals was compiled by Corporate Watch in June 2022 for cleaners affiliated to the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain who were campaigning for PPE, fair treatment, and higher pay. 2005 United Nations misconduct incident ESS became a UN-registered food vendor in 2000 and then went on to win contracts to supply UN peacekeepers operating in Sudan, East Timor, Liberia, Burundi, Eritrea, Lebanon, Cyprus and Syria. The UN suspended Compass in October 2005 after allegations of contract bidding irregularities. It was alleged that ESS may have improperly obtained confidential information concerning a three-year contract to supply food and water to UN peacekeepers in Liberia. Compass said staff members had been dismissed but did not officially say how many. The investigation was conducted by law firm Freshfields and accountants Ernst & Young and overseen and ultimately by the chairman of Compass' audit committee, Steve Lucas. Federal investigations were held and the case was referred to the Serious Fraud Office (UK). The lawsuits, in which the two competitors who claimed a total of £600m in damages against Compass, alleged that Compass had tried to rig the awarding of UN contracts worth in excess of $350m (£188m) for United Nations peace keepers across the world. 2013 horse meat scandal In February 2013, it was discovered that some meat products sold in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere contained horse meat without proper declaration or official scrutiny. As part of this Compass Group discovered, through testing, that it had unknowingly supplied concealed horse meat in burgers from Rangeland Foods supplied to a "small number" of schools in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Southern District Health Board In 2016, the Southern District Health Board in New Zealand received numerous complaints about the quality of the food being served at Dunedin Hospital, where a 15-year contract was controversially awarded to Compass Group in 2015. Louisiana State University In 2019 Chartwells Higher Education, a Compass Group subsidiary, ended its relationship with Cenikor, a drug rehabilitation organization that had been providing labor for Louisiana State University's cafeterias. This followed the publication of allegations that Cenikor was supplying unfree labor (a type of slave labor) as contract labor and the opening of federal and state investigations into labor law violations. Courts in Louisiana often sentence defendants to terms at Cenikor as an alternative to prison or jail. Images emerged on social media showing small or poor quality school meals for children. Chartwells, a Compass Group subsidiary, was criticized, and the company issued an apology. "Britain's most heartless employer" Unite the Union branded Compass Group subsidiary ESS as "Britain's most heartless employer" in a dispute where outsourced cleaners and catering staff at the Ministry of Defence faced redundancy in a "fire and rehire" manoeuvre. Corporate Watch's profile on Compass Group listed campaigns by Unison and GMB members against second class working conditions in NHS hospitals between 2011 and 2019. ==References==