Special Report
CATERING MATTERS
PART 2
Jo Austin talks to Newest Group joint ceo, Jonathan Stent-Torriani at Hamburg’s World Travel Catering Expo
Following up on our talks with Servair ceo, Patrick Alexandre and LSG Sky Chef’s Erdmann Rauer we spoke to Jonathan Stent-Torriani about his company’s latest
achievements and future plans.
OBH: Where are you seeing growth in the industry, if any? What regions of the world are most active for you? JST: Our main growth areas are S America, Africa and the Middle East and we are developing in S E Asia. We like to work with local partners who understand cultural backgrounds and concentrate on secondary hub facilities with the exception of major hubs in Paris CDG and Madrid Barajas. We are currently operating in 46 countries and our top 20 customers make up 37% of total revenue.
What is you main area of activity now? We are now 50% airline catering and 50% non airline. For instance, in Brazil there is a thriving oil and gas industry and we are running a joint venture with EBX as outside caterers for the mines, remote sites, ports and construction. We have also expanded our rail catering sector with the acquisition of Wagons-Lits from Accor and have tenders out for rail business in France and Spain. Our retail business has expanded to airports, bars and restaurants.
Newest’s business is split 50/50 airline catering and non airline
To what do you attribute your success in these challenging times? More than 130 of our managers are also our investors and some 68% of the company is owned by management. We believe that this creates a personal touch to both our employees’ and managers’ motivation on behalf of our customers.
And how are you adjusting to the current economic climate? We have had to adjust to the changing markets and demands worldwide by being
flexible. We have redoubled our efforts in innovation and creativity. We are also working to retain our ‘family’ organisation based on ethical values and down-to-earth hard work while developing skills and processes to adapt to major shifts in global commercial and consumer trends. We have enhanced our training programmes and strengthened our global human resource co-ordination to assure our managers and staff grow and develop.
Can you talk us through your relationship with Saudi Arabia and what affect has the Arab Spring had on business? Saudi Arabia has passed through the year without noticeable negative volume effects from the Arab Spring which was challenging in other Middle East areas. Saudi Catering is under Newrest management with some 72% of the business dedicated to airline catering and the rest in schools, businesses and remote sites. Our new CPU in Riyadh became operational in May last year and is producing frozen meals for Economy. In 2012 we supplied a record 81,123 halal meals for 269 departing aircraft in one day for pilgrims returning from Hajj. Mecca is attracting15-20% annual growth of pilgrims who stay on average for three weeks and our new unit has a daily capacity of 54,000 frozen halal meals for them. It’s an attractive growth market at a time when some airlines are reducing product or cutting costs.
www.onboardhospitality.com 25
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