Gate Gourmet makes moves in Madrid
The new facility at Coslada is 9,600 square-feet and boasts a brand new kitchen with digitalized updates
Gate Gourmet has moved its Madrid catering operation to a newly-fitted, modern facility in Coslada, Spain, south of Adolfo Suarez Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) – about an eight-minute drive.
The Grand Opening Ceremony took place on November 12, one week ahead of the official start of operations.
The 9,600 square-meter facility features a kitchen that “allows our Michelin star Gate Gourmet chefs to showcase their culinary expertise and deliver innovative and inspired meals to all classes of airline passengers,” says the release from the company. The kitchen has updated culinary equipment, such as digitalized devices which link to a centralized recipe library, enhancing control and achieving better execution of menus.
The kitchen is linked to a meal assembly area that also features digitalized equipment and will serve more than 12 international airlines and produce 18,000 passenger meals per day. The facility will also host a culinary experience center where chefs can develop new techniques, dishes and menus, and where clients can see dedicated menu presentations.
Gate Gourmet's new catering unit has solar panels and energy-efficient dishwashers
With sustainability in mind, the catering unit was built under leadership, energy and environment design (LEED) principles with solar panels for hot water and dishwashers with heat recovery that reduce the amount of energy needed to reach operating temperature. All of which results in “savings in water, chemicals, energy, thus [lowering] the environmental footprint of the facility,” says the release.
The facility features 16 door docks for trucks, allowing it to allocate up to 2,500 pallets in its warehouse for dry goods and 260 pallets for frozen goods. This storage capacity allows Gate Gourmet Madrid to become the regulatory warehouse for all the company’s retail activity in Spain.
The Gate Gourmet team in Spain worked with “LEAN principles” – which the release defines as: the collaborative team effort to improve performance by systematically removing waste and reducing variation throughout the process – to ensure a zero-defect startup for its customers.
"This is a truly exciting development and our long-term investment in the facility at Coslada demonstrates our commitment to the Spanish market and our employees,” said Herman Anbeek, gategroup's President of Americas, Europe and Middle East. “The building has been designed following sustainable, innovative working processes to provide our customers with the highest degree of operational excellence, efficiency and culinary expertise.”
