EuroBusinessMedia (EBM): Elior Group, a global leader in contracted food and support services, just released its full-year results. Philippe Salle, hello. You are the Chairman and CEO of Elior Group, what are some of the highlights of these results?
Philippe Salle: Well, this morning we published a good set of results in terms first of top line, we have grown by close to 4%, and the organic growth was above 3% without, of course, the contracts that we have decided to exit. In terms of profitability, the EBITDA margin has increased by 20 basis points and in turn, earnings per share have increased by more than 30%. We will propose in fact to the next AGM a dividend of 40 cents versus last year that was 32 cents, so it’s an increase also by close to 30%.
EBM: Looking ahead to growing the company in line with your strategy, you just announced two acquisitions in India. What are your ambitions there and in Asia in general?
Philippe Salle: First in India, we said during the Investor Day in 2015 that we would enter Asia in the contract catering and we have chosen India first. Now, our ambition, of course, is to be one of the top two players - we are number 3 now by the 2 acquisitions we have made - and probably target $100 million by 2020. In Asia, probably in the concession catering, we will also enter this market in the future, we are looking specifically in the Middle East and also Asia, like China, the big airports in the China mainland.
EBM: You have been quoted in the press as saying that you’d like to grow in the Anglo-Saxon markets of the US and the UK. What progress are you making there?
Philippe Salle: In the US, first, the goal we have set for ourselves in 2015 was to triple the size by 2020. We have done four acquisitions already, some in 2015, the rest in 2016, and we have roughly doubled the size of the business in one year, so I would say we are in good progress to of course triple the size in the future. So in the US we are on the way to achieve the target that we have set in 2015. In the UK, the target is to be in the top 3 players, so be one, of course, of the leaders of the market. We have done one acquisition in 2016; we are now close to £400 million pro forma in 2017 and the idea is still to target £600 million or a little bit more to enter the top three players in the UK.
EBM: What impact might Brexit have on your plans in the UK?
Philippe Salle: For the Brexit in itself, for us we estimate that there is a little impact. The only impact on our P&L is the cost of goods sold because the importation is a little bit more expensive with the British pound being a little bit weaker. For the rest, it’s local business and we concentrate on sites and we do not see any impact on our business at the moment.
EBM: And finally, what would be the major projects of Elior Group looking ahead to the next 12 months?
Philippe Salle: What we are continuing to achieve in the course of next year is continue to apply the transformation plan, the Tsubaki plan that we named in 2015. Out of the 8 projects of the Tsubaki plan, probably 2 or 3 will be more important to watch next year. The first one is on what we call the BtoC, ensuring that we are developing our turnover, more oriented for the end consumers. The second one of course is the purchasing, to make sure that we are also getting the savings that we have looked at and described in 2015, and the third is operational excellence, making sure also that the quality of the delivery and the quality of food is improving versus last year.
EBM: Philippe Salle, Chairman and CEO of Elior Group, thank you very much.
Philippe Salle: Thank you.
