As the Rugby World Cup final approaches, Sodexho (OTCBB:SDXAY)
(PARIS:SW) announced that 110,000 corporate hospitality and 185,000
travel packages were sold for the tournament. Both numbers are more
than double the number for the RWC 2003 in Australia four years ago.
Sodexho, a leading global provider of Food and Facilities
Management services, formed a joint venture, RTH'07, with the Mike
Burton Group to manage the marketing and distribution of both types of
packages for the International Rugby Board (IRB). The IRB's decision
to combine the responsibility for both corporate hospitality and
travel is a first in sports marketing with the result that sales for
this tournament have exceeded the combined total of the two prior
Rugby World Cups by more than one third.
RTH'07 appointed 25 official travel agents and nine corporate
hospitality agencies to sell the packages. With overall control,
RTH'07 was able to tightly restrict the number of tickets which fall
into the hands of black marketers and also offer an innovative
hospitality experience, marrying excellent food with exciting
multi-media displays, all designed to set a new standard for
hospitality at RWC 2007 for major international sports competitions. A
dedicated innovation team worked on design concepts for two years
using an innovation model which was benchmarked against other major
international events.
RTH'07 pledged that it would 'raise the bar' on the standard of
hospitality provided at major international sporting events.
The Rugby World Cup is the third largest sporting event in the
world behind the Olympics and the soccer World Cup. It is watched by
more than four billion people and attracts two million spectators, and
raises funds to help pay for the expansion and development of the game
worldwide.
Sodexho and the Mike Burton Group also provided financial support
to the Tackle Hunger initiative of the IRB, which partners with the
United Nations World Food Programme, to raise public awareness about
the 850 million people around the world who suffer from hunger and
malnutrition. Sodexho's own program, STOP Hunger, operates in 22
countries around the world.
SODEXHO ALLIANCE, founded in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, is a leading
global provider of Food and Facilities Management services, with more
than 342,000 employees in 80 countries. For Fiscal 2007, which closed
August 31, 2007, SODEXHO ALLIANCE had revenues of 13.4 billion euro.
Listed on Euronext Paris, the Group's current market capitalization is
more than 7.9 billion euro.
