SriLankan Catering profits soar

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

SriLankan Catering building

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 percent 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: "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.