A new pool of clients
Compass Group, Sodexo, and Aramark have all benefited as organizations seek outside help managing food purchasing, labor shortages, and increasingly complex operations, opening a pool of potential customers beyond the industry’s traditional contract battles.
According to Reuters, market leader Compass said first-time outsourcing customers accounted for 51% of new business signed in the six months to March, up from 45% three years earlier. Compass told Reuters that the increase is partly linked to inflation, as well as rising operational complexity and more demanding client requirements.
Sodexo reported a similar pattern. Chief Executive Thierry Delaporte told Reuters that roughly half of the French group’s contract wins now come from first-time outsourcing customers, calling it a global trend. Aramark has also described first-time-outsourcing opportunities as running above historical levels.
Healthcare and education lead the opportunity
Healthcare and education stand out as leading growth sectors. Outsourcing remains less established in these areas than in corporate workplaces, sports venues, and other mature markets, according to Reuters. A Sodexo spokesperson said the two sectors are expected to be the company’s fastest-growing segments, while Compass highlighted both as major first-time-outsourcing opportunities in investor materials published in May.
Morningstar analyst Ben Slupecki told Reuters that scale is the core advantage driving the shift. Large caterers can negotiate prices, manage supply chains, and use data to adjust menus and purchasing more efficiently than many self-operated cafeterias, an edge that becomes more pronounced during periods of rapid price increases.
What this means for BPO clients and providers
This story centers on food and facilities outsourcing rather than business process outsourcing (BPO). But the underlying drivers, inflation and operational complexity, have pushed organizations to hand off specialized functions to outside providers for the first time, a dynamic that is reshaping demand across the BPO sector.
Healthcare and education buyers moving on to catering for the first time are often the same organizations weighing outsourcing for IT support, back-office, and customer experience functions. It suggests that providers targeting those verticals should expect a similarly growing pool of first-time outsourcing buyers rather than a market limited to switching between existing vendors.
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Rhodes, D., & Barbier, L. (2026, July 21). Global caterers ride first-time outsourcing wave as food prices rise. Reuters. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/business/global-caterers-ride-first-time-outsourcing-wave-food-prices-rise-2026-07-21/
