The group, which in Europe runs franchises for McDonald’s, French restaurant chain Hippopotamus and the La Brioche Doree fast-food chain, is to review its external PR agencies across the region as it draws up a fresh three-year strategy for its West European division.
Jean-Pierre Goy, director of external and internal communications for the division, said the review would focus on Compass’s internal communications, community relations and product branding, before the proposed strategy is put to the board at the end of the year.
Compass merged the internal and external communications and marketing departments at its West European arm last month.
The group’s former director of external comms and marketing, Pierre Aubergir, has left the company and a newly created director of marketing post remains vacant, according to Goy.
Goy heads a communications team of eight, handling internal and external PR, plus online communications. He reports to Compass Group West European head Antoine Cau.
‘We wanted our business message to have more coherence, and we decided it was better to have only one man in charge of communications,’ said Goy.
Compass Group’s West European division covers the group’s businesses in France, Italy and Switzerland, as well as Polynesia.
The group’s four other divisions – the UK, the US, Eastern Europe and Rest of the World – are understood to be unaffected by Goy’s comms revamp.
Last month, Compass Group chief executive Michael Bailey said the company was on course to deliver its 2003 targets, with like-for-like turnover growth of at least six per cent.
