INTERNATIONAL. SSP Group today (19 May) has revealed resilient first-half results to 31 March, with reported revenue climbing +6.2% year-on-year to £1,763 million (US$2,361 million). Like-for-like sales grew +5%.
EBITDA reached £127 million (US$170 million), a +13% year-on-year increase, while operating profits were up +18% to £50 million (US$67 million).
Pre-tax profits in H1 stood at £36 million (US$48.2 million), a +9% rise.
The Group said that despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, its diversified international portfolio and operational discipline continued to support strong overall performance.
The UK and Ireland was a standout performer for SSP with year-on-year sales growth of +8.4% on H1 revenues to £456 million (US$611 million).
This was driven by strong performance in airport trading and a robust contribution from a refurbished estate of 58 M&S stores in rail and airport locations.
Revenue growth was achieved in all other regions, with North America contributing £411 million (US$550.5 million) – +1.9% year-on-year; Continental Europe £565 million (US$757 million) – +2.2%; and Asia Pacific/EEME £331 million (US$443.3 million) – +8.9%.
Business review
SSP said delivery of its ‘Focus26’ plan remains the key priority, with an emphasis on operational discipline, profitable growth and improved customer conversion across its global travel F&B estate.
The group maintained like-for-like sales growth of +5% in both Q1 and Q2, supported by strong UK trading, improving momentum in North America and positive growth in Asia, helping offset disruption linked to the Middle East conflict.
SSP highlighted new concept launches, including Reserve Bar in Dublin, The Rappahannock Oyster Bar in North America and Master Hungs and Petit Jardin in Hong Kong.
In North America, the company is focused on expanding within its existing airport footprint and boosting passenger conversion through service and product enhancements.
In APAC & EEME, SSP said acquisitions in Australia and Indonesia are performing ahead of expectations, while the company is expanding its partnership with Travel Food Services in India through new airport contracts and preparing to open at Noida International Airport. It also launched its first Travel Club Lounge in Thailand.
In the UK, refurbished M&S stores continued to perform strongly, delivering double-digit like-for-like growth, while upgrades across the airport estate are improving customer perceptions of value and consistency.
SSP noted it remains on track to lift operating profit margin in Continental Europe above 3% this year, following a turnaround programme targeting underperforming businesses in France and Germany.
Measures include rent renegotiations, leadership changes, office consolidation, labour and cost efficiencies, and the phased exit of the German motorway services business by end-2026.
The group said the broader operational improvement plan should support medium-term regional margins of more than 5%.
Across the wider business, SSP is driving cost efficiencies through labour productivity initiatives, tighter operational standards, procurement savings and a global overhead restructuring programme expected to deliver annualised savings of £30 million (US$ 40.1 million).
The company also highlighted progress in cash generation and capital discipline, with a £100 million (US$134 million) share buyback programme around 60% complete. SSP reiterated its target of generating more than £100 million in free cash flow this year while reducing capital expenditure and improving returns on capital employed.
On track: Continental European Rail review complete
SSP said a strategic review of its Continental European rail business concluded that reducing the size of the estate – rather than a full exit – offered the best route to improving shareholder returns.
The group plans to exit around one-third of its approximately 330 rail units, focusing future investment on larger, higher-performing locations and brands while reducing exposure to lower-returning concepts such as bars and restaurants.
SSP said it expects the strategy to halve future capital expenditure in the division and create a smaller, more profitable and more cash-generative business over time.
Most benefits are expected from FY27 onwards, although implementation costs will initially offset some gains. SSP said a further update will be provided with its Preliminary Results in December.
Outlook
Giving its full-year outlook, SSP said trading has remained solid at the start of the second half, with like-for-like sales growth of +3% in the first six weeks to 10 May, compared with +5% growth in both Q1 and Q2.
The group maintained its FY26 earnings guidance, expecting earnings per share to remain within market consensus of 13.6p-14.8p, while continuing to target free cash flow of more than £100 million and further progress towards its 20% return on capital employed goal.
The company cautioned, however, that any worsening of the Middle East conflict, further disruption to aviation fuel supply and prices or softer consumer travel demand could affect full-year performance.
While SSP said trading in the UK, North America and Continental Europe has remained largely resilient, passenger traffic in Asia Pacific and EEME hubs has weakened due to lower connecting flights and softer local demand. Operations in the Gulf are currently running at around 60% of normal capacity.
Despite the uncertainty, SSP said its diversified global footprint and ‘Focus26’ operational plan leave it confident in its longer-term growth prospects.
Resilience and progress
SSP Group CEO Patrick Coveney said: “This has been a period of resilience and progress for SSP. We’re pleased to have delivered good trading and profit improvements against a challenging backdrop for the global travel sector in the half, underlining the strength of our geographically diversified business model and disciplined operational execution across our portfolio.
“The external environment is uncertain given current events in the Middle East, where I’d especially like to thank our colleagues for their remarkable focus and commitment during this period.
“That said, our strategy and priorities are unchanged. While we recognise there is of course more to do, through our Focus26 plan, we continue to strengthen operational performance across the Group, with clear initiatives underway to drive sustainable improvements in profitability, cash generation and returns on capital.
“Having concluded the wide-ranging review of our rail business in Continental Europe, we are starting to implement our plans. I’m confident these will deliver a smaller, more profitable and more cash generative business in this region over time.
“Our teams remain focused on what we can control – delivering for our customers, supporting our partners, and executing great operational discipline.
“Taken together, and given overall good trading at the start of the second half, we remain confident in our prospects for the remainder of the year.”
Interview – Controlling the controllables
Speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report about these themes this morning, Coveney said the company’s strong first-half performance reflected a disciplined focus on “what we can control” amid continuing geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.
Coveney highlighted a return to positive first-half earnings per share for the first time since 2019 as a particularly significant milestone.
“It’s really good to see the business delivering 1.1p of earnings per share in the first half,” he commented. “The overall theme is very, very good like-for-like performance across our markets, and then that feeding through into margin enhancement.”
Coveney pointed to improving momentum in North America, where like-for-like sales strengthened from +1% in Q1 to +3% in Q2 following disruption linked to a US government shutdown and shortages of air traffic controllers earlier in the year.
“When the macro environment in America stabilises our like-for-like stretches,” he said. “We’ve been encouraged by the performance, and we have sustained that into the first six weeks of our second half.”
The UK business remained a standout performer, driven by both airport trading and the strong performance of SSP’s refurbished M&S estate.
According to Coveney, the refurbishment programme across 58 M&S stores has focused on revitalising the format for airport and rail customers through faster digital checkouts, refreshed layouts and improved merchandising.
“A combination of how we’ve taken what is a strong high street brand and how we’ve ‘travelised’ it for the locations that we’ve got is giving us very good double-digit like-for-like growth in those stores,” he said.
SSP is also seeing strong returns from investment in premium bar concepts across UK airports, including The Reserve in Dublin, Shelby & Co in Birmingham and The Binary at Leeds Bradford.
“I think it’s an example of us getting the concepts right, and that’s driving very good like-for-like performance, which is good for us and good for our clients too,” Coveney noted.
On the Middle East conflict, Coveney said the group’s directly exposed Gulf airport operations account for only around 2% of total SSP sales and are currently trading at around 60% of prior-year levels.
He stressed, however, that the wider business remains resilient. “If I look at our business in America, the UK and continental Europe, we’re actually not seeing any aggregate impact in terms of our sales performance,” he said.
Coveney said the group’s portfolio had moved from +5% like-for-like growth in the first half to +3% in the first six weeks of H2, reflecting both weaker Gulf trading and softer passenger flows through wider regional hub airports.
Looking ahead, Coveney expressed confidence in SSP’s trajectory despite ongoing uncertainty.
“We continue to trade the business where we hope to trade it,” he said. “Clearly there’s some impact in the Gulf, but we think that’s manageable in the context of the size and shape and performance of the rest of the group.”
On the strategic review of Continental European Rail, Coveney confirmed SSP is targeting “a smaller, more profitable, lower capital requiring business” centred on larger, higher-density units in major stations.
“We’ll probably have about a third less units,” he said, “but the units we retain on average will have a sales intensity of about +25% more than they have today.” 
