/ History

45 years of continuous growth

Founded by Pierre Bellon in 1966, Sodexo developed from a small family business in Marseilles, France into the worldwide leader in quality of daily life services in four decades. The recipe for our success is well known: our focus on organic growth, our client-centered approach and a unique company culture shared by all our employees.

From “Sodexho” to “Sodexo”

In 1966, Pierre Bellon founded the company under the name “Sodexho” (for Société d’Exploitation Hôtelière”). In 2000, the name of the company changed to “Sodexho Alliance” as it had made three major acquisitions to strengthen its international network (Gardner Merchant in the United Kingdom, Partena in the Scandinavian countries and Marriott Management Services in North America). The word “Alliance” was then dropped in 2006 and, in 2008, Sodexho simplified the spelling of its name to “Sodexo”.