In Person
David Loft
Onboard Hospitality talks to David Loft, vice president, dnata International Catering, just over a year into his new role at the global company
David Loft
VICE PRESIDENT DNATA INTERNATIONAL CATERING
David Loft leads the team at dnata International Catering as they produce over 50 million in-flight meals a year from catering operations in 61 airports in 11 countries worldwide.
OBH: What are the strengths of dnata and Emirates? DL: The world has witnessed the enormous growth of Emirates to become the largest airline in the world and a brand that is recognised globally for its excellent service and outstanding quality. dnata, too, has witnessed staggering changes since the late 90s with global expansion and development of the catering side of the business in particular. The company has quadrupled its business over the last six years through global acquisitions in both ground-handling and catering. The first foray into catering was with the acquisition of CIAS in Singapore in 2004, this was followed by 49% of Alpha Australia in 2007, 100% ownership of Alpha globally in 2010, the Wings acquisition in South Africa in 2011 and En Route, our specialist bakery, snack and meal company, in 2012. Last year we announced the joint venture in the UK with LSG and this year we have implemented the merger of Wings in South Africa with Newrest, to become dnata Newrest.
dnata is a growing player in the international catering market. How does dnata differ from its competitors and secondary operators like Servair? It is not our intention to become the biggest for the sake of it; our plan is to grow the business in a sensible manner. Our mission is to ’deliver the
Pictured above: An Alpha chef adds his finishing touches;
EnRoute International's bake-off unit; and dnata's catering trucks in Singapore
promises our customers make’. This means that effectively we want to ensure every passenger on every flight we cater receives the best possible quality of product and that we exceed their expectations. We are in a unique position in that we are still relatively small and as a private
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company we are able to make decisions that benefit our customers and ourselves rather than having to react to the stock market or any other influences.
Many accuse traditional caterers of not moving with the times. Do you agree? There is some truth in the statement but many caterers have often just followed the path on which airline customers have pushed
them, rightly or wrongly. There is a change now to a more collaborative relationship between airline and caterer – which can only be good. Our aspiration is to be an
invaluable partner for our customers and drive additional value. We want to move away from a lowest cost choice to a best quality and service choice. Let’s face it - you either have to be the cheapest or the best. The guy in the middle never wins.
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