Food Profits

Sept 21, 2009 (LBO) - The catering unit of state-run Sri Lankan Airlines said it was expecting an upturn with more visitors coming to the island after a war with a 1.2 billion rupee net profit already under its belt in the year to March 2009. These include Emirates, Qatar, Malaysian Airlines, Royal Jordanian, Kuwait Airways, China Airlines, Singapore, Saudi Arabian Airlines, as well as state-run Mihin Lanka and SriLankan Airlines.

It has a production facility at Katunayake built at a cost of 2.5 billion rupees three years ago. The 18,300 square metre flight kitchen is located on a 5-acre site and is staffed by 550 persons with an average experience of 12 years.

It had turned out 11,000 meals per day during the last financial year, and capacity of 25,000 meals per day, on 60 different menus.

The firm also operates three restaurants at BIA, and supplies catering services for several other restaurants and lounges in the airport that are operated by other institutions including Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd, which owns the airport.

SriLankan Catering, which was founded in 1979, is a BOI approved and no not have to pay income tax till 2021.

The company is a member of the International Travel Catering Associa