Compass said the restructuring phase of its recovery was complete and the group should be now judged a “normal grown-up company”, after seeing a 35 per cent rise in pre-tax profits.

“All of the structural elements of the restructuring are in place 12 months into our recovery,” said Richard Cousins, chief executive. “We’ve exited almost all of the countries we are going to, 95 per cent of the disposals are done, but there are still bags of opportunity for the business model we have created.”