Better still, the company said it expects sales this year to grow by around 30%, compared with the previous range of 20-25% it had given, while it has also unveiled plans for a £500m share buy-back programme. The shares rose by more than 10% at one point on the news.
"We have seen a notable improvement in business and industry and education as employees return to the office and students to in-person learning."Mr Blakemore said he expected the net new win rate to continue into the second half of the year - having won some £550m worth of new business during the first six months of the year.
Some 30% of the company's contracts are fixed price and, although inflation had been running ahead of the 5-6% price increases Compass has recently pushed through, Palmer Brown, the chief financial officer, pointed out that the company's profit margin had actually improved during the period through initiatives such as trying hard to reduce food waste.
"However, it will look different than it did historically. We're seeing a shift away from working in the office on a prolonged bases - it's gone from somewhere around 4.2 days or work in the office to three and a quarter. Those kinds of details may provide some kind of comfort for investors that the company is capable of returning to pre-COVID levels before long in all parts of its business - even if workers do ultimately switch to hybrid working on a permanent basis.