The world’s biggest contract caterer, Compass Group, expects to win new contracts worth £1.3 billion in the year to this September.

In the first six months of its financial year Compass pulled in £600m worth of new contracts. This resulted a rise in profit before tax of five per cent to £269 million, as sales increased from £5.5bn to £5.8bn. The full-year, like-for-like forecast is for an increase of seven per cent

Compass sees the UK market as a solid performer, but faces problems in Germany and France. The group expects to benefit from the general improvement of the US economy.