Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin with a summary of our year before handing over to Palmer, who'll talk to the financials. After that, I'll cover strategy in more detail. Our conference call is at 9:00 A.M. U.K. time, when you'll have a chance to ask questions. The dial-in details are available on our website and in the press release. Before moving on, I'd like to officially thank Karen Witts for her contributions to the business over the past few years, particularly throughout the pandemic. I know most of you know Palmer, and I'm delighted he's here in his new role as our CFO. 2021 was a year of strong recovery. Operationally and financially, we are building a better business. As revenues and margins continued to improve, we also saw record new business wins and client retention.
Our innovative teams are supporting our clients with hybrid concepts backed by digital solutions. The Compass culture is unique, and our strong values drive our focus on people and purpose, as seen in our global commitment to net zero. We're now transitioning away from managing costs to focusing on growth, driven by the structural market opportunities enabled by our strategic priorities. I'll say more about this in a moment, but with that, I'll now hand over to Palmer.
Thanks, Dominic, and good morning, everyone. For those of you who don't know me, I joined Compass in 2001. Over the last 20 years, I've had the privilege of holding a variety of finance and strategic roles, including being interim group CFO in 2018. I'm excited to help lead the business through the next phase of our growth. Starting with the financial highlights. We've made great progress rebuilding revenue, ending at 88% of pre-COVID revenues in Q4, slightly higher than our pre-close guidance. Our operating margin improved through the year, reaching 5.8% in Q4. We had record new business wins of GBP 2.1 billion, with 50% coming from first-time outsourcing, as well as record client retention. Our cash performance was strong, with over GBP 1 billion of operating cash flow.
The board has approved reinstating the ordinary dividend, reflecting our increasing confidence in the business. Revenue and margins improved sequentially quarter on quarter. Revenue grew from 66% of pre-COVID revenues to 88% in Q4. Margins improved from break even to 5.8% this year as we continue to manage our cost base and work with clients to adapt our operations. Drilling down into the sectors. We saw revenue recovery throughout the year and across all sectors. This was quicker in education and sports and leisure, while healthcare, senior living, and DOR grew consistently above 2019 levels. Unsurprisingly, we have further to go in B&I. Office populations are gradually rising, with most units around half of pre-COVID populations, up from less than 20% at the trough.
Roughly 40% of our Restaurant Associates clients in the U.S. and the U.K. are offering some free food options as an incentive to get employees back to the office, and most plan to continue doing so post-pandemic. In general, while consumers are working fewer days in the office, they tend to be there for longer and consuming more. Penetration rates and transaction values are higher and for much of our business, revenues are returning more quickly than population levels. Although we ended the year at 88% of 2019 revenues in Q4, the base business, excluding net new and pricing, was only around 80% of its 2019 level. While there are some mobilization costs as units reopen, returning volumes improve our margin over time. Overall, there is significant potential for further revenue and margin growth as the base recovers.
Revenue growth was driven by reopenings and net new business, which was particularly strong in the second half at GBP 450 million, representing about GBP 1 billion on an annualized basis. This is equivalent to 4% net new growth on pre-COVID revenues, which is about 1% higher than our historic rate of 3%. Remember, new business mobilizes at a lower margin, which builds over time as contracts mature. The roll from this growth, combined with the recovery of the base volumes and record new business wins, positions us well for future growth. Now to the regions. In North America, we ended the year at 76% of 2019 revenues and 90% in Q4. This performance is better than we expected due to stronger reopening numbers in education and improved attendance, along with higher per capita spend in sports and leisure.
Our healthcare and senior living business continued to perform very strongly. Most importantly, we benefited from exceptional new business wins across all sectors. Our full year operating margin was 5.4% and 6.2% in Q4. Moving to Europe, where we ended the year at 75% of 2019 levels and 84% in Q4. Spain, Turkey, and Central Europe returned to positive organic revenue growth for the full year. Education, healthcare and senior living, and DOR were all trading in line with 2019 levels by Q4. Encouragingly, annualized net new business improved to 2.5x 2019 levels. We completed the resizing program, and our focus on cost control contributed to an operating margin of 3.2% for the year and 5.7% in Q4.
Rest of World was the first of the regions to return to full-year growth. Revenues were at 86% of 2019 levels and 90% in Q4, reflecting some seasonality in the last quarter. 60% of the region's revenues are in healthcare, senior living and DOR, which are trading above 2019 levels. The full year operating margin was 5.6%, and our focus on actions to control costs resulted in a Q4 operating margin of 7.3%. Turning to our balance sheet, opening net debt was GBP 3 billion. Free cash flow, pre-CapEx was strong at GBP 1.3 billion. This was after repaying GBP 225 million of deferred sales and payroll taxes. Half of the CapEx was invested in the business, and acquisitions mostly relate to the earn out payment on Unidine.
Dominic will talk more about this successful business later. Closing net debt was GBP 2.5 billion, and leverage fell to 1.6 times. You will recognize our capital allocation model. First and foremost, we invest in CapEx and M&A to drive growth. While maintaining a resilient balance sheet, we return capital back to shareholders. This is demonstrated by the reinstatement of the ordinary dividend today, reflecting our increased confidence in the business. Now looking ahead. As you're aware, there are several near-term challenges in the form of supply chain disruption, labor shortages and inflation. While these are ongoing challenges, we have a proven track record of mitigating inflation through operational efficiencies and our contract structures. We are leveraging food by scale and flexing our food offer to manage supply chain disruptions.
Although there are heightened mobilization and reopening costs in the short term, they are growth related and overall net positives. Remember, too, that these challenges act as a catalyst for outsourcing, benefiting our growth. Dominic will speak more to this in a moment. In conclusion, we delivered strong revenue and profit growth in the year, making good progress across all regions. For fiscal 2022, we anticipate organic revenue growth to be in the range of 20%-25%, and we expect to achieve an operating margin over 6% for the full year, with an exit rate of around 7%. Given the macro environment, the reopening of our base business and mobilization of new business combined with the lag impact of pricing, we expect margin progress to be second half weighted.
Looking ahead, we are excited about the potential for future revenue and profit growth above historical levels based on a number of factors, further recovery of our base business, recently mobilized new business, record new business wins, which have yet to mobilize, favorable market and structural dynamics accelerating first-time outsourcing, and ongoing internal opportunities for us to improve how we work as a business. Further, we expect continual margin progression back to our pre-pandemic levels. The timing will depend on the pace and shape of the recovery and the evolution of the market dynamics. Thank you. Now back to Dominic.
Turning now to strategy. As Palmer has explained, we're focused on growth. I believe we're best placed to take advantage of the changed market opportunities given our strategic enablers, including our flexible operating model, our digital innovation, CapEx and M&A, and our ESG agenda. I'm confident that we will emerge as an even stronger business, further extending our market-leading position with growth potentially beyond our historical range. Before COVID, we identified a significant addressable food services market of around GBP 220 billion, of which only half is outsourced. As global market leader, we still hold less than 10%. There's huge runway for growth in all regions and in all sectors. We see further attractive opportunities in higher value support services. We prefer to operate in healthcare, DOR and education, where we have a clear point of differentiation.
Throughout the pandemic, our support services grew near double digits with an accretive margin. Furthermore, it's getting more difficult for self-operators to navigate a very complex environment, and the list of must-haves is only getting longer. In addition, inflation and other cost pressures caused by the pandemic are creating challenges which can lead to further outsourcing. Although we all face these challenges, Compass has the right tools, scale and innovation to use this moment as an opportunity to grow sales and profits. I mentioned earlier that we've seen record new business wins this year. In total, we won over GBP 2 billion of new business, which is a 15% increase on 2019, which was our previous best year. The outsourcing trends continued with half of the new business wins coming from first-time outsourcing compared to an historical 30%.
The pipeline of prospective new business also looks really healthy, and we expect to maintain the same level of CapEx despite this higher growth rate. This chart shows the top 10 contracts won in North America in 2021. Eight of these were self-op conversions and accounted for around $300 million of new business. As a result of the pandemic, we created innovative hybrid solutions to feed employees at work or at home, which also helps us penetrate smaller client sites which don't have kitchen infrastructure. These solutions are scalable and enabled by virtual kitchens, allowing them to adapt to fluctuating volumes. For some years, we've been building a digital hospitality platform. We're now scaling mobile ordering with pickup and delivery options to increase participation and also to improve efficiency. Over the course of the pandemic, we've seen a four-fold acceleration in vending solutions, unattended markets or mobile ordering.
Our data shows a 70% growth in digital orders compared to pre-pandemic levels, with 85% of our B&I consumers in the U.S. using our mobile app to order food. Here's a recent example of a B&I client introducing mobile ordering in addition to their traditional cafe formats. As a result, we've seen higher transaction values with 90% of pre-COVID revenues being generated by only 60% of the population. M&A is a great growth enabler, and we have a strong record of successful acquisitions delivering attractive returns. We look to diversify our existing portfolio of brands or to strengthen our existing capabilities in a sector or in a region. The leverage Compass has in procurement and overheads leads to instant synergies and can supercharge growth.
Unidine, a business in the senior living space, strengthened our capability in this attractive market, delivering an accretive growth CAGR of 17% since acquisition, ROCE of more than 15%, which continues to grow. Given the right opportunities, we'll do more of these acquisitions. ESG is a priority for us, as recently demonstrated by the net zero global commitment for the group, with our countries and sectors setting their own ambitious climate targets. Levy UK was the official caterer at COP26, creating a low carbon menu with locally sourced ingredients and a carbon rating for each menu choice. We're also committed to social mobility, investing in a new development hub in the West Midlands, training over 12,000 people to address the skills shortage in the U.K. hospitality sector, and particularly in social mobility cold spots.
Our focus on ESG has been a key factor to winning new business. In the U.K., around 70% of the most recent bids included an environmental focus as a top priority. As you've seen, the Compass model of value creation is robust. We're entering a phase of growth through accelerated first-time outsourcing and continued share gains. Our margin recovery remains strong while we continue to support organic revenue growth through CapEx, supplemented by targeted M&A opportunities. Reinstating shareholder returns was a key milestone in our recovery. We're excited about the potential for revenue and profit growth above historical rates over the coming years and rewarding shareholders with further returns. In conclusion, we had a great year of recovery, and we're excited about 2022. We believe this is a unique moment in time where market opportunities and our strategic priorities are well aligned.
This means we're in a strong position to grasp those exciting opportunities to create a better business for all of our stakeholders. We look forward to speaking with you on the call at 9:00 A.M. Thank you.