Boss behind notorious school dinners firm quits

The boss of the giant catering company behind the notorious Scolarest school dinners firm is to quit.

Sir Francis Mackay, 60, who chairs the world's biggest contract caterer, Compass, will stand down by the time of the company's next annual meeting in February.

The announcement follows growing pressure from the City over its poor results and the firestorm of criticism to hit its subsidiary Scolarest since Jamie Oliver's School Dinners series was broadcast earlier this year.

Sir Francis, who has been chairman since 1999, leaves with a pension pot worth £14.9 million that will pay him a retirement income of almost £750,000 a year.

The company has been struggling to win back its City reputation since last September, when it first warned that profits would not meet shareholders expectations. One of the reasons given was that its state school meals contracts were not proving as lucrative as hoped. This was because of rising labour costs, more children taking packed lunches and pressure on school funding.

Since then the situation has got worse as a parents' revolt has forced dozens of schools to review their contracts with Scolarest. The company has about 2,500 contracts with schools, colleges and universities and was criticised for serving up "nutrition lite" meals such as turkey twizzlers to children.

Sir Francis joined the group in 1986 and has helped oversee a huge expansion of the group, which also includes the Upper Crust sandwich chain, Moto motorway service stations and Harry Ramsden's fish and chip shops.

It is also thought chief executive Michael Bailey, who bore the brunt of the criticism for the group's recent poor performance, could go.