Sodexho becomes Sodexo, the reference brand in Quality of Life services

Paris - January 22, 2008 - Sodexho Alliance unveiled a new brand identity at its Shareholders' Meeting held today in Paris. As the reference for Quality of Life services, the Group is renewing and revitalizing its brand to reinforce its single global brand strategy and support its transformation from a Foodservices to a services company. Sodexho Alliance has been renamed Sodexo and a more contemporary, dynamic visual identity will be deployed on the 29,000 sites where the Group operates worldwide supported by a three-year action plan.

“The new visual identity represents a key stage in our development,” said Sodexo CEO, Michel Landel,. ”This evolution of our brand is a major step in the life of our company, designed to make Sodexo's brand a reference, enhancing its visibility and its value and helping us grow and progress toward our shared vision to become the premier global outsourcing expert in Quality of Life services.”

“Sodexo's single, global brand is part of our DNA,” said Clodine Pincemin, Sodexo's Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications. “The Sodexo brand represents the promise of quality, innovation and continuous improvement, that the highly professional skills and expertise of our teams enable us to deliver to our clients and customers. In modernizing our brand and increasing its impact, we want to enhance the value of the brand for the benefit of all of our stakeholders. This project was launched more than one year ago by a working group comprised of communications professionals from our major regions and business activities. To ensure successful deployment, we will closely manage the deployment process relying on Sodexo's 342,000 employees around the world as our ambassadors of the brand and its values.”

A new global image, a streamlined, dynamic brand

Three major changes have been made as part of the brand evolution:

• The word “Alliance” has been dropped from the company's legal name to accelerate the deployment of Sodexo's single global brand strategy throughout its operations, business segments and host countries.
• The letter “h” has been deleted from the name to support the Group's strategic transformation into a Services company. Because the “h” is often associated with the hotel and foodservices business, particularly in Europe, the change emphasizes the Group's accelerating development in Facilities Management services. In addition to increasing the brand's scope and impact, the simpler, more dynamic name has been found to be easier to pronounce and spell for people around the world.
• The logo has been streamlined and given a more contemporary graphic design that rejuvenates and revitalizes the brand. The typography is simpler, livelier and more compact. The star, long part of the Group's visual identity, has been transformed from five stars to one. The single star symbolizes the performance and energy of Sodexo  teams directed toward a common objective.  This star differs from other stars, just as Sodexo stands out from its competitors. Finally, the bar of the letter “x” is curved, like a smile-a red streak reaching upwards toward the Sodexo star and a symbol of the countless gestures of attention performed daily by Sodexo teams to “make every day a better day.”

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SODEXHO ALLIANCE, founded in 1966 by Pierre Bellon, a world leader in Food and Facilities Management services in most markets, with more than 342,000 employees on 29,000 sites 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 today was more than 6.0 billion euro.

04/30/2008: Sodexo ranked in top five among global outsourcing service providers
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