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Report of the month

January 2011
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Compass

Chertsey, Surrey, United Kingdom



Report Facts

Company name: Compass Group PLC
Fiscal year end: September 30, 2010
Report title: Delivering daily
Chairman: Sir Roy Gardner
Group Chief Executive: Richard Cousins
Number of books: 2 (incl. Corporate Responsi!bility)
Annual report length: 136 pages
Auditors: Deloitte LLP
Design and production: Conran Design Group
E-mail: investor.relations@compass-group.co.uk

Report Rating

3.5/5

(Rating scale below)

Profile-Mission (Excerpts, as from the report)

We operate in 50 countries... we are well placed to benefit from the growing outsourcing opportunity in food and support services... We provide services in over 40,000 client locations. We have more than 428,000 great people delivering great service. We serve more than 4 billion meals a year.
Delivering across diverse sectors: Business & Industry (41%); Education (16%); Healthcare & Seniors (19%); Sports & Leisure (11%); Defence, Offshore & Remote (13%).
(Annual Report) (Italics are own company’s words)

Key Figures

Revenues: £ 14,468 million
Operating profit: £ 989 million
Operating margin (underlying): 6.9%
Net profit: £ 680 million
Earnings per share (basic): £ 36.0 pence Dividend: £ 17.5 pence
Return on capital employed: 20.3%
(Source: figures sourced from the annual report only)

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Triple A

> Delivering theme sustained with great consistency, story-telling visuals built around the clock (see Selected Page), and substantiated with facts and figures.
> The theme-based visual thread is informative and provides good breaks in a readable book.
> Governance and remuneration policies and figures up to the best UK and international practices.
 

Double A

> Good overview of business, both by sector and by geography.
> Risk management clearly set forth.
> Solid Corporate Responsibility website and report, also introduced in the annual report with a recap table showing progress made (or not) on an array of commitments.
 

Simple A

> Strategy is explained by the Chief Executive, but he could elaborate further.
 

B Sides

> Online annual report plainly functional, poorly interactive, and lacking in real resources for financial analysis.
> Highlights don’t really highlight: 6 + 4 indicators, of which underlying ones only give a partial view.
> Investor information and share indicators go from short to hard to find or non-existent.
> Finance director’s report doesn’t deliver sufficiently and is short on commentary, especially on financial condition (where ROE is not reported (ROCE only) and debt is compared to market value but not to equity).
> No summary of historical data and a big deficiency in ratios.
 

How does the company report in key areas? What are the main report pluses and minuses? The Report Scan gives an overview of strengths and weaknesses, and scores each item.
Contact e.com@reportwatch.net

 

Selected Page

(p 15 of Compass Annual Report 2010)
p 15 of Compass Annual Report 2010
Rating Scale
5
First-Rate
4.5
Excellent
4
Very good
3.5
Sound
3
Average
2.5
Uneven
2
Common
1.5
Substandard
1
Poor
0.5
Uncompetitive
The rating is based on ReportWatch internal desk research and does not take into account the independent Rating Panel’s judgment.