SSP sees full-year core profit, sales at upper end of expectations

Upper Crust and Ritazza owner SSP said on Tuesday that FY 2023 sales and core profit are set to be at the upper end of its expectations, as it hailed a strong first half performance, particularly in North America.

The company had guided to sales of £2.9bn to £3bn and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £250m to £280m.

"Whilst we continue to face macroeconomic uncertainty, we believe that the travel food and beverage sector will remain structurally resilient to pressures on consumer spending and that our global footprint, with increasing exposure to the North American and Asia Pacific regions, will enable us to deliver sustained growth," it said.

"Progress in the first half of the year has been encouraging as we have maintained revenue momentum and have actively mitigated inflationary pressures to deliver a strong conversion of sales to profitability."

In the six months to the end of March, SSP - which has outlets at airports and train stations - swung to a pre-tax profit of £15.8m from a loss of £2.3m in the same period a year earlier. Revenues rose 64.1% to £1.3bn, underpinned by a continued recovery in passenger travel volumes.

SSP said the recovery is being led by domestic and leisure travel across both the air and rail sectors, with business and commuter travel also recovering, albeit more slowly.

The company’s strongest-performing region is North America, where revenues are now at 124% of 2019 levels, "reflecting the growth of domestic air travel and the scale of net gains in the region". In Continental Europe, meanwhile, revenues are at 116%, driven by a strong performance across the Air business.

Chief executive Patrick Coveney said: "This has been a strong first half for SSP, and the ongoing revenue momentum across the business means that we are now expecting our performance for 2023 to be at the upper end of our previous assumptions."