Longstanding Compass chief makes surprise exit

THE catering boss described by pay campaigners as one of the biggest fat-cats in UK business is standing down.

Richard Cousins said today he will quit as chief executive of Compass after nearly 12 years.

He will retire next September and hand over the reins as chief executive to Dominic Blakemore next March. Blakemore is the chief operating officer of Compass’s European arm.

Under Cousins, Compass has grown into the world’s biggest caterer, supplying food to armies, hospitals, and businesses, as well as events like Wimbledon (pictured).

When he started in 2006, Compass faced serious corruption allegations, accused of paying bribes to land deals with the UN. It settled the claims.

Cousins has drawn strong criticism for the huge gap between his pay, typically £5.5 million a year, and the average salary at Compass, less than £14,000. A large number of Compass’s 500,000 staff are on minimum wage, zero-hours contracts.

In January, Cousins surprised the board of Tesco by quitting as a non-executive director. It emerged that he did so in protest at the supermarket’s bid for Booker.

The shares have doubled in the past five years, today slipping 37p to 1575p, at which price the company is valued at £25.8 billion.