by Vijaylakshmi
French food services company Sodexo, which will be providing meals at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, said Thursday that it sees healthy growth in 2024 after reporting that profit rose by more than 15 percent last year.
The company, one of the world’s largest providers of meals in company canteens and school cafeterias, said it expects revenue to expand “at the upper edge” of a 6-to-8 percent range, boosted by both new clients and higher prices for its services.
Net profit last year rose 15.4 percent to 427 million Euros (USD 460 million) as sales gained 4.5 percent to 12.1 billion, it said in a communique.
Chief Executive Sophie Bellon said in a telephone briefing with journalists that Sodexo has been helped by companies improving their food offerings as a strategy to lure employees back to the office after the Covid 19 pandemic.
“Even if there are still many remote workers, companies absolutely want their employees to come back in person and are ready to provide them with premium offerings,” she said.
Sodexo said it has almost completed its recruitment drive for the summer Olympics. The company will employ 6,000 people for the games, and says it has filled 85 percent of the positions with a mix of internal and external candidates.
Some 1,000 people will work each day at the athletes’ village, where Sodexo will serve up to 40,000 meals a day. The games run from July 26 to August 11, and will be followed by the Paralympic Games.
Sodexo shares were up 2.4 percent on the Paris stock market.
