At the board of directors meeting on March 31, 2022, and chaired by Sophie Bellon, the board closed the consolidated accounts for the first-half fiscal 2022 ended February 28, 2022.
Highlights include:
- Revenue growth +19.4%, despite Omicron, organic growth +16.7%
- Underlying operating profit doubled, H1 margin at 5.2%, up +210 bps
Fiscal 2022 guidance
- Organic revenue growth around the bottom of the range of +15% to +18%
- Underlying operating profit margin close to 5%, at constant rates
Sodexo chairwoman and CEO, Sophie Bellon, said in the company announcement:
“Revenue growth and margins improvement have been strong in this First half, reflecting the solid recovery in Education, Corporate Services and Sports & Leisure segments. Omicron did have an impact on the recovery in the second quarter, but we are seeing a pick-up since the end of February.
We have closed the GET efficiency program, with better results than anticipated. The teams mobilized actively to implement measures to mitigate rising cost inflation: indexation, client negotiations, productivity, product substitution. These actions resulted in a +210 bps improvement of our Underlying operating profit margin to 5.2%.
Since October 2021, we have made significant progress on our strategic priorities. Operational execution and sales development are improving in the United States. More new food model offers are being deployed in our major geographies. Our disposals and acquisitions are fully aligned with our portfolio strategy. The transfer of the management of Schools and Government & Agencies to the regions is a first step in the simplification of our organization.
In the second half of the year, we are confident that the return to the workplace and Sports & Leisure events will continue to recover. However, the environment remains uncertain with intermittent local outbreaks of Covid-19, and the war in Ukraine. We are confident that we can manage the year end inflationary pressure on margins. Currencies should give us a nice tailwind, but we expect organic revenue growth to be around the bottom of the range we had given in October 2021.
Our teams are mobilized to meet the challenges and I warmly thank them for their impressive engagement in the field with our clients and our suppliers. We remain confident in our capacity to continue to grow our business.”
