LSG Sky Chefs CEO Walter Gehl at this year’s ITCA Conference in Nice

LSG Sky Chefs notes improvements and profits

A combination of cost-cutting, shedding loss making businesses, improving operations and reducing overhead helped LSG Sky Chefs increase revenue and earn an operating profit of €100 million (US$154 million) the company reported March 19.

For the business year 2007, LSG Sky Chefs logged consolidated revenue of €2.4 billion (US$3.7 billion), a 5.2 percent increase from the previous year.

At its annual press conference, LSG Sky Chefs CEO Walter Gehl told reporters that in the year ahead, the company would begin a program called “Upgrade to Industry Leadership.” The program will concentrate on improving operations at a regional level as well as cross-regional and cross functional activities, the company said in its March 19 release.

Expansion looks promising in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India and China. LSG Sky Chefs has established a partnership with the logistics and distribution firm Küehne + Nagel last year which “opens access to 400 distribution centers in 55 countries,” according to the caterer. Next step for the company will be a new procurement subsidiary in Hong Kong.

Other goals for the year ahead will be to open two new frozen food operations, one in Qingdao, China and the other in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States as well as expansion of its current facility in Alzey, Germany.

In the year ahead Gehl said the company will be watching the U.S. economy, the increased cost of fuel and raw materials and the unfavorable currency exchange rates. “I am, however, confident that we will achieve further profitability and revenue growth on the market level,” he said.

Several other events have recently taken place. In March, LSG Sky Chefs catered its first flight of the A380 on Singapore Airlines’ routes to and from London Heathrow. For the food service the caterer worked with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. The airline plans three daily flights from Heathrow to Singapore. LSG Sky Chefs will supply nearly half a million meals per year for the route.

LSG Sky Chefs also renewed its contract with Brussels Airlines for the next five years. The company will supply food, drink and duty free for the carrier’s 49 aircraft.