IF SOME WORKERS, after months spent at home, reluctantly concede that they are missing their colleagues, few will admit any longing for the office canteen. Companies that cook up meals for workers, pupils and hospital patients have been hit by covid-19 just as hard as restaurants (usually) open to the public. As employees trickle back to cafeterias, their prospects look no less mixed than those of other eateries. What purveyors of catered grub lack in customer enthusiasm they make up for in size. The four big food-outsourcing firms-Compass Group in Britain, America's Aramark and Sodexo and Elior in France-together serve up perhaps Hbn meals a year. Of the nearly $3oobn spent on feeding workforces, student bodies and the like, roughly half is outsourced, and half of that goes to the multinationals. Growth was steady if not spectacular before covid-19, helped by acquisitions of local rivals.
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