Catering giant Compass has bought out Castle Independent, a school meals company with an annual turnover of £30m (US$42.9m), for an undisclosed sum.

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Castle Independent, a subsidiary of contract caterer Castle View, employs around 2,500 staff and will continue to be run as a separate business to Compass. It will however benefit from group purchasing and administration.


The company has contracts for 39 independent schools, 12 local authority schools and five Private Finance Initiative projects across the UK.


Castle View completed the sale because it wants to focus on its £50m a year core business in the leisure and business and industry sectors.

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