SriLankan Catering’s profits soar 40% to Rs. 640 m

Wednesday, 23 February 2011 00:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

SriLankan Catering (Pvt) Ltd. has reported an impressive net profit of Rs. 640 million in the nine month period up to 31 December 2010, a 40% increase over the same period in the previous year.

This excellent performance came despite the company registering an exchange loss of Rs. 160 million during the period due to the appreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee.

SriLankan Catering is the fully-owned subsidiary of SriLankan Airlines Ltd., Sri Lanka’s national carrier, which is 94.68% owned by the Government of Sri Lanka.

SriLankan Catering serves the in-flight meal requirements of a large number of airlines that operate out of Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport, including SriLankan Airlines, and is the sole airline caterer in Sri Lanka.

The company’s state-of-the-art flight kitchen in Katunayake produced a total of 3.15 million meals during the nine month period, at an average of 11,453 meals per day.

SriLankan Catering’s CEO Sarath Fernando said: “I am delighted to announce these impressive results, which are a credit to the entire team at SriLankan Catering and to our marvellous production facility.

We believe that this trend of rapid growth will continue as Sri Lanka savours the benefits of permanent peace which in turn has led to greatly increased tourist arrivals and a boom in airline business to Colombo. Our flight kitchen has ample capacity to more than double the existing production and cater to the exciting opportunities that this will bring for many years to come.”

The net profit for the month of December 2010 was Rs. 110 million, during which time SriLankan Catering produced more than 385,000 meals.

SriLankan Catering has added several more client airlines in recent times, as well as providing an increasing number of meals to airlines already operating to BIA.

The company also provides cuisine for all seven of the restaurants and lounges at BIA. In addition to strengthening its core business of in-flight catering, SriLankan Catering is also diversifying into ancillary areas, and currently operates an industrial laundry facility in Katunayake and the 24-roomed Serenediva Transit Hotel at BIA.

The company possesses no less than four international certifications - ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management Systems, ISO 22000:2005 for Food Safety Management Systems, HACCP-Codex Alimentarius for Food Safety Assurance, and ISO 14001:2004 certification for Best Environmental Practices. It won the prestigious National Energy Efficiency Gold Award in the large scale state sector category last year.