SSP Group’s pandemic recovery aided by travel resurgence | News

SSP Group has posted third-quarter outcomes that counsel its restoration from the pandemic is gathering tempo, with income reaching 87% of 2019 ranges.

In a buying and selling replace masking the interval from 1 April to 30 June 2022, the journey foods and drinks operator mentioned its income efficiency had been pushed by an ongoing restoration in passenger numbers in addition to longer passenger dwell instances in some markets.

The group – which owns travel-hub bakery-led manufacturers together with Higher Crust and Ritazza – added that the restoration had been pushed by home and leisure journey in each air and rail sectors, with rail commuter journey recovering at a slower tempo than leisure journey.

Within the UK, SSP’s gross sales averaged 82% of 2019 ranges for the quarter, pushed by an additional strengthening of gross sales in air, whereas buying and selling in rail was impacted by the current nationwide industrial motion.

The group identified that there stays “appreciable uncertainty within the macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop”, however insisted that it’s nicely positioned to profit from a continued restoration of the journey sector, however the present challenges of airport disruption, labour shortages and industrial motion throughout sure air and rail markets.

“In frequent with the whole hospitality sector, we proceed to face widespread and growing inflationary pressures impacting our provide chain, labour and power prices, and these are anticipated to persist nicely into subsequent 12 months,” a spokesperson SSP mentioned. “Nonetheless, we’re assured in our potential to handle these pressures by means of productiveness and pricing initiatives and anticipate to mitigate the impression on revenue, while sustaining the optimistic momentum in client demand.”

SSP mentioned that by 2025, its pipeline of recent contracts is predicted so as to add roughly £500m to revenues in comparison with 2019. “Because the enterprise continues to get better, we anticipate the mobilisation of this pipeline to speed up,” the spokesperson added.