SSP is a British multinational contract foodservice company, with headquarters in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, England. It operates more than 2,800 branded catering and retail units at over 180 airports and 300 railway stations across 35 countries as a

concessionaire A concession or concession agreement is a grant of rights, land or property by a government, local authority, corporation, individual or other legal entity. Public services such as water supply may be operated as a concession. In the case of a p ...

. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and is a constituent of the

FTSE 250 Index The FTSE 250 Index ( "Footsie") is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions and demotions to and from the index occur quarterly in March, June, Septem ...

History

The business was established as a division of Scandinavian airline

SAS Group SAS AB (Scandinavian Airlines System Aktiebolag), trading as SAS Group, is an airline holding company headquartered in the SAS Frösundavik Office Building in Solna Municipality, Sweden. It is the owner of the airlines Scandinavian Airlines an ...

under the name of SAS Catering in 1961. Its Select Service Partner (SSP) division was acquired by

Compass Group Compass Group plc is a British multinational contract foodservice company headquartered in Chertsey, England. It is the largest contract foodservice company in the world employing over 500,000 people. It serves meals in locations including o ...

in May 1993 for £72 million. Compass then merged SSP with several other companies it owned, including

Travellers Fare Travellers Fare (normally rendered officially as Travellers-Fare) was a company owned by British Rail that provided catering services on the rail network in Great Britain. History Prior to 1973, railway hotels and catering came under British T ...

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's former catering division which had been privatised under a management buy-out in 1988 before being bought by Compass in 1992. In 2006 the business was bought by

EQT Partners EQT AB Group is a global investment organization founded in 1994. Its funds invest in private equity, infrastructure, real estate, growth equity, and venture capital in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. , EQT's assets under management ...

for £1.822 billion. The company was the subject of an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

in 2014. During the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom The COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United Kingdom, it has resulted in confirm ...

, SSP announced it was cutting 5,000 UK jobs across its chains, including Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza, as part of a restructuring aimed at keeping the company afloat. In November 2022 it was announced that SSP was buying

AMT Coffee AMT Coffee was founded in 1993 by Alistair McCallum-Toppin and his two brothers Angus and Allan. AMT Coffee is a chain of coffeehouses that are located in airports, hospitals and railway stations. /sup> AMT Coffee was the first national coffee ...

out of

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

Operations

Cafè Ritazza, Paragon Station, Hull - geograph

SSP operates a large portfolio of small brands, many of which are locally specific. Significant brands include: *Le Grand Comptoir * Upper Crust * Caffè Ritazza *

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YO! Sushi YO! Sushi is a company that owns, operates, and franchises conveyor belt sushi restaurants, principally in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Australia. History YO! ...

Le Train Bleu The ''Calais-Mediterranée Express'' was a French luxury night express train which operated from 1886 to 2003. It gained international fame as the preferred train of wealthy and famous passengers between Calais and the French Riviera during th ...

*Walter *Millies Cookies *Whistlestop SSP also provides outsourced catering on board a number of train services, operating under the brand RG (previously Rail Gourmet). Clients have included

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Arriva Trains Wales Arriva Trains Wales (ATW; cy, Trenau Arriva Cymru) was a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operated the Wales & Borders franchise. It ran urban and inter-urban passenger services to all railway stations in Wales, ...

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, East Coast,

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Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

, South Western Railway,

Gatwick Express Gatwick Express is a high-frequency rail passenger service between , Gatwick Airport, and in South East England. It is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Gatwick Express route of the Thameslink, ...

Hull Trains Hull Trains is an open-access railway operator in England owned by the multinational transport company FirstGroup. It operates long-distance passenger services between Hull / Beverley and London King's Cross. It has a track-access agreement u ...

Iarnród Éireann Iarnród Éireann () or Irish Rail, is the operator of the national railway network of Ireland. Established on 2 February 1987, it is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ). It operates all internal InterCity, Commuter, DART and f ...

National Railway Company of Belgium french: Société nationale des chemins de fer belgesgerman: Nationale Gesellschaft der Belgischen Eisenbahnen , type = Statutory corporation , industry = Rail Transport , foundation = 1926 , founder = Government o ...

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and VR. SSP provides services at

Ottawa International Airport Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of ...

Criticism

In 2018, SSP brand Rail Gourmet was criticised for giving staff four days' notice that they were being made redundant on the Thameslink Railway routes.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Catering and food service companies of the United Kingdom Food and drink companies established in 1961 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Swedish companies established in 1961 British companies established in 1961