How did a small start-up based in Marseille become a world leader in services? Here’s how we grew our ambition and our activities, while always focusing on our original values and mission.
We landed our first major contract with the CEA, the French Research Institute for Atomic Energy in 1966.
50 years later, we are happy to say that we are still delivering food services for the CEA in Pierrelatte.
After getting started in companies and government services, we successfully entered the education market and we served our first school meals.
In 1988, we provided food services for the athletes, staff and journalists and the Calgary Olympics.
It was the beginning of a historic relationship. After having also worked for the Barcelona, London and Tokyo Olympics, we are happy to report that we will be providing food to all athletes for the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.
In 1983, we were first listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. Today, we are a member of the Euronext CAC 40 ESG Index.
We became the world’s biggest food company after acquiring Gardner Merchant and Partena.
We became the leader in corporate services in the United States after merging with Marriott International.
We become the World’s #1 in remote sites.
We join the New York Stock Exchange, a major step in our international development.
We supported the Inco Group in New Caledonia with services for the construction site for Goro Nickel’s mine, hiring 95% of employees locally.
We became the #1 provider of services to the German healthcare market, after having doubled our size in the country and concluded the acquisition of VR, the Brazilian leader of vouchers and card services, securing first place in this sector in this country.
In order to give the group a more international scope, and to support its transformation to a global services group, Sodexho becomes Sodexo.
We acquired Lenôtre, one of the greatest names in French cuisine, strengthening our luxury gastronomic expertise in Paris and worldwide.
We acquired Roth Bros in the United States, MacLellan in India and Atkins in the UK, while also deploying a global technical expertise platform.
Our founder, Pierre Bellon, passed away at 92. His sense of purpose, however, still lives on thanks to the executive team. His daughter, Sophie Bellon, becomes Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer at Sodexo.
We accelerated our response to the challenges of the post-Covid period, strengthening competitiveness and accelerating transformation with strategic acquisitions and investments such as Frontline Food Services, Fooditude and Nourish.
Our activity returned to pre-covid levels and Sophie Bellon, our Chairwoman and CEO, unveiled a strategic plan designed to accelerate growth by 2025.
We demonstrated the success of the 2025 strategic plan with solid results achieved by focusing on food services, boosting the sustainability and innovation in the services we offer to our consumers, redesigned the consumer experience in FM services, simplified its organization, reinforced its attractiveness as an employer and strengthened its financial performance.
Sodexo and Pluxee (previously our Benefits and Rewards Services activity) became independent companies, a milestone moment in our history and a decisive step forward with the creation of 2 pure players in their respective fast-growing markets.
“Constant progress is our only means of differentiating ourselves from the competition… this alone will enable us to show our clients and customers that our services evolve to match their changing needs and that we are constantly improving our offering”.
