Catering giant Compass yesterday said it planned to cut up to 4,000 jobs owing to a deteriorating outlook and as it warned over Brexit's impact.

"There will be... no more than 4,000 job cuts" over the next two years, or less than one per cent of Compass' global workforce, a spokesman told the news agency after the company said it would look to cut costs after a drop in annual profits.

"There is some weakness in some key European markets like Germany, France and the UK," the spokesman said.

"Key manufacturing clients are laying off people."

Compass, which supplies contract catering services to offices, schools, hospitals and sports centres, employs 600,000 staff worldwide.