On Tuesday, Sodexo reported an increase in sales for the first quarter of its 2024-2025 fiscal year, driven by solid sales momentum and the sequencing of net contributions from new contracts.

Over this period, sales totaled 6.403 billion euros, up 1.9% on the previous year. Organic growth stood at 4.6%.

This result was below consensus, whereas analysts were on average expecting sales of 6.496 billion euros and organic growth of 5.3%.

In Europe, sales advanced by 2.0%, marking a slowdown compared with previous quarters, due to the loss of contracts last year and a reduction in one-off projects.

In the rest of the world, the Group posted organic growth of 6.4%, underpinned by strong demand in India, Brazil and Australia, three booming markets.

While China is experiencing a gradual recovery, some Latin American countries, such as Chile and Peru, saw their growth impacted by major contract losses last year.

Nevertheless, Sodexo confirmed its financial targets for 2025, namely organic sales growth of between +5.5% and +6.5%, and an improvement in operating margin of between +30 and +40 basis points, at constant exchange rates.

(Written by Noémie Naudin)