CHARLOTTE N.C. Compass Group PLC, has finalized a deal to acquire three mid-sized foodservice management contractors specializing in the health care and education segments of the on-site industry. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Bailey, who retired from Compass in 2006, purchased Wheeling, West Va.-based Aladdin Food Management, Walpole, N.H.-based Fitz Vogt & Associates and Columbia, Mo.-based AmeriServe Foodservice Management in partnership with San Francisco-based Gryphon Investors. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Bailey said the three entities generate combined sales of approximately $105 million annually. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
The three firms, which currently trade primarily in the Northeast, will operate under the umbrella of newly created parent company TrustHouse Services Group, based in Charlotte. Bailey will be its chairman and chief executive. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
The company’s name recalls that of Trusthouse Forte Food Services, a Trumbull, Conn.-based contract feeder that Bailey led as chief executive in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Trusthouse Forte Food Services was the U.S. division of a London-based catering company that in 1991 changed its name to Gardner Merchant Services Group. Gardner Merchant was acquired by Sodexho in 1995. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Bailey said that he decided his new company would be focused on health care and education because “those sectors are the fastest-growing foodservice markets with the lowest contractor penetration and are among the most recession resilient.” —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Tom Mac Dermott, founder of Kingston, N.H.-based consultancy the Clarion Group, noted that Bailey’s decision to acquire companies that cater to those two sectors is a smart one “because they’re not fully penetrated the way the other markets are.” —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Added John Cornyn, founder and chief executive of Portland, Ore.-based consultancy Cornyn-Fasano Group, “He’s taking the two obvious growth and stability industries to plant his flagpole in and that’s the only smart way to do it.” —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Bailey also said there is a lot of room in on-site foodservice for increased competition, particularly at the smaller and mid-sized levels of the industry. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
“Our intention is to grow this business into a middle-market player,” Bailey said. “There certainly is a gap in the market—you’ve got the three big boys and then there’s quite a substantial gap before you get to the other players. I’d like to think that, through a series of acquisitions and organic growth, we can take this company to half a billion in sales over the next five or six years.” —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Bailey said the executive management teams at each firm would remain the same: Wayne Burke as president of Aladdin, Jim Hecker, president of Fitz-Vogt and Richard Liebman, president of AmeriServe. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
“Bailey is very well-liked in the industry and may be able to poach on Compass’s talent,” Mac Dermott noted. “He’s going to need an executive team above [everyone]. There will be a percentage of people from the companies he’s acquiring who leave.” —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
The former Compass Group CEO stepped down from his post in 2006 amid a drop in earnings and a scandal at Compass’s Eurest Support Systems division that involved allegations of bid rigging at the United Nations. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Following an in-house inquiry into the accusations at ESS, several senior-level executives were fired and lawsuits involving competitors ES-KO International and Supreme Foodservice were settled for around $75 million. Richard Cousins, former head of London-based BPB, a plasterboard manufacturer, took over as Compass’s new chief executive and a new chairman, Sir Roy Gardner, also was appointed. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Over the last two years, the company has been in turnaround mode, selling off several of its holdings, including the travel division Select Service Partners, or SSP; fine-dining restaurant group Restaurant Associates, now known as Patina Restaurant Group, and a majority stake in the 221-unit bakery-café chain Au Bon Pain, in order to streamline and concentrate on its core business. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Before returning to live in the states in January, Bailey lived in Switzerland for two years. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
“I’ve been out of the business for 18 months now and the bottom line is I’ve been bored, so here we go again,” he said. “I wanted to do something else and do it on my own. My only partners are Gryphon and some of the management team that is in place.” —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
Bailey worked for the company that would become known as Gardner Merchant from 1964 to 1992. In 1992 he joined Nutrition Management Services Co., a Kimberton, Pa.-based on-site company specializing in the health care arena. The next year, he joined Compass, where he held several leadership positions, including chief executive of the company’s U.S. division in Charlotte. He was named chief executive of Compass Group PLC in 1999. —Claiming he was bored with retirement, Michael J. Bailey, former chief executive of London-based contract giant
