Caterer in legal Case over mice in school kitchen returns to profit

A catering company owned by the billionaire Coates family has reported a return to profit, after it emerged that the company had served food from a mouse-infested kitchen to primary school children and failed to pay staff the minimum wage.

- Rob Davies

ABM Catering Solutions is owned by the Labour donor Peter Coates and his family, including his daughter Denise, who is known for her record-breaking pay for running the family's Bet365 gambling empire.

Serving food at care and retirement homes, schools and football stadiums yielded after-tax profits of £882,000 in the year to July 2023, boosted by a tax credit of £265,375 from HM Revenue & Customs.

The catering business had also built up £5.6m of cash in the bank by the end of the year, according to Companies House filings for ABM Catering (Holdings) Limited.

But within months ABM had paid an undisclosed sum to West Northamptonshire council in an outof-court settlement over its failure to follow food hygiene laws.

The company, based in Warwickshire, was also among 500 that were named and shamed by the government in February for not paying staff the minimum wage. It was forced to repay a combined £17,195 to 270 workers.

The Coates family, who live in Stoke-on-Trent, are worth nearly £7.5bn, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, with the bulk of their wealth stemming from the Bet365 betting empire run by Denise.

Her father, Peter, was a pioneer in food at football stadiums who sold his business, Lindley Catering, to the pan-European food services business Sodexo in 2001.