Sodexho

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Sodexho
TypePublic
Founded1966
HeadquartersMarseille, France3, Avenue Newton 78180 Montigny le Bretonneux
Area served80 countries
Key peoplePierre Bellon; Michel Landel
IndustryFood services;Facilities Management;Service vouchers and cards
ServicesFood services;Facilities Management
Revenue12.798 billion EUR (2006)
Operating income605 million EUR (2006)
Profit333 million EUR (2006)
Employees332,096 (Feb. '07)
Sloganmaking every day a better day
Websitehttp://www.sodexho.com/

Sodexho Alliance, or simply Sodexho, (Euronext: SW) is a French multinational corporation and one of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world. It is present in seventy-six countries, earning revenue in 2006 of €12.798 billion. Sodexho has two major lines of business: food and facility management services, and service vouchers and cards.

Contents

[edit] Food services

Sodexho notably operates cafeterias in companies, public agencies, schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, assisted-living facilities, United States military mess halls, and even private prisons.

[edit] History

Sodexho was launched by Pierre Bellon (Chairman) and Remi Baudin (Vice Chairman) in 1966 in Marseille, initially serving staff restaurants, schools and hospitals under the name Societé d'Exploitation Hotelière (in English, Hotel Services Corporation).

Throughout the 1970's, Sodexho expanded in France and internationally; first in Belgium, then Africa, and finally the Middle East. After an initial public offering on the Paris Bourse in 1983, Sodexho continued its expansion into North America, South America, Japan, South Africa, and Russia.

Between 1995 and 2001, Sodexho's holding company changed its name to Sodexho Alliance, and the company forged alliances with Gardner Merchant, Partena, Sogeres, Wood Dining Services and Universal Ogden Services. In 2000 Sodexho Alliance became the leader in remote site management after a merger with Universal Ogden Services.[1]

In 1998, Sodexho merged with Marriott Management Services, at the time one of the largest food services companies in North America. Included in the merger was a name change to Sodexho Marriott Services, which has since been changed to just Sodexho. The merger helped Sodexho become one of the largest food services providers in America.[2]

In 2002 Sodexho was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In the summer of 2006, the company made headlines for inking a deal with NBA legend and business entrepreneur, Earvin Magic Johnson and Magic Food Provisions, a subsidiary of Magic Johnson Enterprises. The initiative includes a marketing agreement and the formation of SodexhoMagic, LLC - a new joint venture that is 51 percent owned by Johnson.[citation needed]

Since September 2006, the company has been managed by global CEO Michel Landel. Since September 2007, its United States operations are headed up by President and CEO George Chavel, who replaced Richard Macedonia.

[edit] Philanthropy

Sodexho started the Stop Hunger initiative aimed at eliminating hunger, especially of children. The Stop Hunger volunteers work everyday to provide food to needy children and their families in many locations in North America through programs such as Feeding Our Future and Campus Kitchens. The Sodexho Foundation has also funded research on the root causes of hunger and possible solutions to the problem.

[edit] Controversy

The company's activities in private prisons and in schools have given rise to considerable controversy at over sixty US colleges and institutions[3]. The film Super Size Me criticized Sodexho's policies on child nutrition in their client schools, featuring Madison Junior High School in Naperville, Illinois. In 2004, UK TV Channel 4 showed a documentary exposing the unhygienic preparation of food by Tillery Valley (a subsidiary of Sodexho)[4].

There have been at least three boycotts of Sodexho, for varying reasons: at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, at the American University in Washington D.C., and at Université Laval in Quebec City. The boycott at the American University was in protest of several of Sodhexo's business relationships and practices: its partnerships with the US Military, its business with prisons, low pay, and poor working conditions. The boycott at Université Laval protested the university administration's refusal of an initiative by the general student association (CADEUL) to provide food services to the university.[5] Sodexho has come under fire in the UK for doing business with the Harmondsworth Detention Centre, home to many asylum seekers.

In October of 2007, Sodexho employees at Hiram College, in Hiram, OH, participated in a walk out to protest low wages, deliberate understaffing, unsanitary conditions, and verbal abuse by their supervisor Jack Cahill. Students and faculty have supported the walkout with a series of protests and sit-ins. During Sodexho's tenure at Hiram College, the school's food was ranked 15th on the Princeton Review's "Is This Food?", a measure of the worst college cafeteria food in America.[citation needed]

[edit] Competitors

[edit] References

  1. ^ Company history
  2. ^ Company history
  3. ^ Not with our money
  4. ^ Unison Companies Update Issue 28 28/07/04, [1] accessed 26/05/06
  5. ^ Boycott Sodexho

[edit] External links

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