SSP, the global giant behind travel brands such as Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza, has seen revenue increase by 4% - helped by a strong performance in the UK.

The company, in its first annual results since re-listing on the London Stock Exchange, said that, on a constant currency basis, its sales reached £1.8bn for the year ended 30 September.

Operating profit increased by 20.8% in the same period at a constant currency, while like-for-like sales improved by 3.3%.

Sales performance

SSP said there had also been a strong sales performance in North America and Asia-Pacific.

Kate Swann, chief executive of SSP, said: “We made good progress on the implementation of our strategy and are particularly encouraged by the strong growth… we also began to deliver early results from our broad programme of initiatives to drive benefits from our international scale and are encouraged by the opportunities going forward.”

SSP said it had a strategy to drive like-for-like sales growth; optimise gross margins; growing profitable new space; running an efficient and effective organisation and optimising investment, utilising best practice.