Sodexo

Sodexo(formerlySodexho Alliance) is a Frenchfood servicesandfacilities managementcompany headquartered in theParissuburb ofIssy-les-Moulineaux.It has 522,000 employees as of 2023,operates in 55 countries and serves 100 million customers on a daily basis.It is Europe’s second largest company of its type by both number of employees and revenue afterCompass Group.
For fiscal year 2023 (ending August 2023), revenues reached €28.1 billion with an underlying operating profit of 699 million euro.Market capitalization was 11.5 billion euro as at 26 October 2023.
Sodexo serves many sectors, including private corporations, government agencies, schools frompreschoolthroughuniversity(includingseminariesandtrade schools),hospitalsandclinics,assisted-livingfacilities, military bases, andprisons.  As of 2016, subsidiarySodexo Justice Servicesoperated support services in 122 prisons in eight countries, including 42 in theNetherlands, 34 inFrance, and others in Belgium, Italy, Spain, andChile, as well as directly running 7 prisons in the UK.
The company was launched in 1966 byPierre Bellon(Chairman) inMarseille,France, initially serving company restaurants, schools and hospitals under the name Société d'Exploitation Hotelière (English:Hotel Services Corporation). Today Sodexo is on theFortune Global 500listand the second largest employer among all French multi-national corporations.
Throughout the 1970s, the company expanded in France and internationally; first inBelgium, thenAfrica, and finally theMiddle East.After aninitial public offeringon theParis Boursein 1983, the firm continued its expansion intoNorth America,South America,Japan,South AfricaandRussia.
In 1994, on October 31, Sodexo began operations in India. CurrentlySodexo India has over 40,135 employees. The head office is situated in Goregaon, Mumbai.
In 1997, Société d'Exploitation Hotelière'sholding companychanged its name to Sodexho,and joined forces with Universal Ogden Services, the leading remote-site service provider in the U.S.
On 11 January 1995, Sodexo S.A. acquired food company Gardner Merchant Ltd. from Cinven and CVC Capital Partners.
In 1998, Sodexho merged withMarriottManagement 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.The merger helped the company become one of the largest food services providers in the United States.In June 2001, Sodexho acquired complete control of Sodexho Marriott Services.
In 2002, Sodexho was listed on theNew York Stock Exchange, but the company withdrew its listing in 2007.As of 2017, the company is listed onEuronext Parisunder the symbol SWand trades stocksover-the-counterunder the symbols SDXOFand SDXAY.
In the summer of 2006, the company made a deal with retired NBA Hall of Famer and entrepreneur,Magic Johnsonand Magic Food Provisions, a subsidiary ofMagic 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.
In 2007, Sodexho launched its catering arm inUnited Kingdomschools, using the brand name "For you...".
In 2008, Sodexho changed its name to Sodexo, dropping thehin order to make the name easier to pronounce in many languages worldwide.
In August 2009, Sodexo acquired the in-home care services company, Comfort Keepers.Comfort Keepers provides non-medical,in-home carefor adults and seniors. It is an internationalfranchisesystem with locally owned and operated franchise offices, and is headquartered inDayton, Ohio.Comfort Keepers franchises are located throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Ireland, Portugal, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. As of June 2016, Comfort Keepers had 500 franchisees running 750 offices in the United States and internationally.
The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity is the leading assessment of diversity management in the US economy and globally. In 2010, Sodexo ranked number one.
In 2010, Sodexo entered into two new partnerships: the first one withUnited Coffee, who will supply Sodexo with machines as well as fair-trade certified coffees; the other one withNumi, from which Sodexo has selected 100% organic teas.
In 2011, Sodexo entered an eight-year contract with the US government, by which the company committed itself to provide food services to 51United States Marine Corpsmess halls.
In 2005,Michel Landelwas appointed Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Pierre Bellon, who continued as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In January 2016, Lorna C. Donatone was appointed head of Sodexo's North American business operations and CEO of its school operations worldwide.
In 2018, shareholders meeting, Denis Machuel replaced Michel Landel as CEO.
Following the death of Pierre Bellon in 2022,his daughterSophie Bellontook over the roles of chairwoman of the board of directors and CEO.
In February 2025, Michael Svagdis was named CEO of campus and government services in the US.
Sodexo offerings range from food service operations including staff restaurants, catering, executive dining, vending, and meal delivery, to integrated facilities management services that include both soft services (reception, concierge, cleaning, pantry, laundry, groundskeeping, waste management, vendor management, etc.) and hard services (HVACsystems, electrical systems including substations up to 220kV, energy efficiency & sustainability services, plumbing/water treatment plant/sewage treatment plant operation, annual equipment operation & maintenance contracts, project management, etc.).
Payment services in the form of vouchers and cards is provided to Sodexo in part byFreedompay.
The company changed its official name from Sodexho Alliance to simply Sodexo after ashareholdervote at the company'sannual general meetingon 22 January 2008.The reason for removing the letter 'h' from Sodexho, cited in the group's 2007 annual report, is that "in certain languages an 'x' followed by an 'h' is difficult to pronounce". The company's corporate website also states that it draws emphasis away from the hotel services industry they were once associated with, as they now focus on many other directions. The Sod part of the name remains unchanged. The logo of the company was also changed, dropping the five stars to a single star. The bar of the letter 'x' is also now curved, like a smile, supposedly suggestive of the company's claimed desire to constantly seek and increase the satisfaction of their clients.
In 2009, theService Employees International Union(SEIU) launched a United States nationwide campaignagainst Sodexo with the stated objective of improving wage and job standards. In 2010, the SEIU recruited students at many U.S. colleges to support strikes and demonstrations in protest of Sodexo's allegedunfair labor practicesincludinganti-union behaviorand paying low wages.Although one series of strikes at theUniversity of Pittsburghled to the negotiation of higher wages and lower cost health insurance plans for the cafeteria workers,none of the Sodexo accounts targeted by the SEIU have unionized or requested anelection vote. According to a statement from Sodexo, the SEIU engaged in asmear campaignin an effort to drive out rivallabor unionsthat have traditionally operated in thefoodserviceindustry as well as for generalpublicity.
Sodexo filed a lawsuit in March 2011 under theRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Actaccusing the SEIU of "engaging in illegal tactics in its effort to unionize workers".During the trial, it was revealed that the SEIU had written and distributed a manual to its staff detailing how "outside pressure can involve jeopardizing relationships between the employer and lenders, investors, stockholders, customers, clients, patients, tenants, politicians, or others on whom the employer depends for funds." Tactics recommended include references to blackmail, extortion, accusations of racism and sexism, and targeting the homes and neighborhoods of business leaders for demonstrations.Following the court discovery of this document, the SEIU agreed to terminate their public campaign focused on Sodexo and the charges against SEIU were dropped.
In May 2011, 27University of Washingtonstudents were arrested during asit-inat the university's administrative offices for protesting the university's concessions contract with Sodexo.Later that same month, another 13 students were arrested under similar circumstances.
In April 2012, a Sodexo regional manager disrupted a student protest at theState University of New York at New Paltzby tearing up protesters' signs.Students there had organized a protest to highlight what they saw as the company's unethical treatment of workers and its lack of response to issues of sustainability.
On 22 February 2013, all of the frozen beef products used by Sodexo in the UK were withdrawn following the discovery of horse DNA in a sample.The company supplies 2,300 institutions, including schools, senior citizen homes, prisons and branches of the armed forces within the UK.
In August 2013,Sodexo Justice Serviceswas criticised in an official report for subjecting a female prisoner to "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment", which "appears to amount to torture" atHMP BronzefieldinAshford, Surrey, UK. The woman was kept segregated from other prisoners in an "unkempt and squalid" prison cell for more than five years.
In February 2019, Sodexo was criticized by the United KingdomMinistry of Justicefor failing to prevent repeated and systemic breaches of the human rights of inmates at the Sodexo-operatedHMP Peterborough. This stemmed from a series of illegal strip-searches of prisoners at the jail in 2017, including one inmate who was menstruating and another who was transitioning from female to male. Justice Julian Knowles described the illegal procedures as "humiliating and embarrassing."
HMP Bronzefieldin Surrey, operated by Sodexo Justice Services, were investigated by police after allowing a woman to give birth alone in her cell without any kind of medical support. The baby was found dead in the early hours of 27 September 2019.
In December 2019, a dispute between theUNITE HERELocal 11 union and the Sodexo operation atLoyola Marymount Universitythreatened to derail a plannedDemocratic Partypresidential candidate debate at the university. The union alleged mistreatment of food service workers.
Starting in October 2019, Sodexo employees (mainly cleaners, porters and caterers) atSt Mary's Hospital, London,  organised by the UVW union,protested at unfair pay and terms on their contract with the hospital and were asking to be brought in-house as fullNHSemployees and to be paid the London Living Wage of £10.85/hour. After being told that this wasn't possible and after Sodexo pay packets missing payments, employees did several days of industrial action, resulting in one of the longest strikes in NHS history. This resulted in all their demands being satisfied, and as there were 4 other hospitals administered by the same trust, all of their 1,200 Sodexo employees were brought in-house and became fullNHSemployees in January 2020. The employees were almost entirely black, latino and Asian people and/or migrants. The industrial action was co-ordinated by Loreta Younsi, a Lithuanian migrant, who had worked as a cleaner at the hospital for 12 years.A documentary called "Fight for your rights: the trade union for outsourced workers" was created afterwards and is on YouTube.