Europe’s ongoing wave of airline consolidations has a shadow partner: the growing consolidation of the companies that provide the inflight meals those airlines serve.
The latest caterer to become a meal for another is Cateringpor, which is now 100% owned by Gate Gourmet, the Swiss-based giant of the industry that had previously owned 49%. Gate Gourmet also gets a five-year contract to continue supplying TAP.
Cateringpor was originally 100% owned by TAP; the two-part selloff is part of the conditions the EU imposed when it allowed Portugal to renationalize and subsidize TAP in 2021. It must still sell off its ground-handling operations. Sale of the two units is among the last obstacles to the planned re-privatization of TAP.
The deal is only the latest for Gate Gourmet, which was originally the catering arm of Swissair, and was spun off in 1992, before that airline went bankrupt in 2002. In 1994, it acquired SAS’s catering business, followed by Dobbs International, and in 2020 the European operations or LSG Group, known under the brand Sky Chefs. It’s also the majority owner of Servair, the catering arm of Air France.
GateGroup, the holding company behind Gate Gourmet, is based in Switzerland, but owned by two Singapore investment companies. It operates over 200 facilities across 60 countries. In the U.S., it is one of the two dominant operators, the other being the remaining operations of LSG Sky Chefs. That company, now owned by an investment group, was formed as a merger of catering operations owned by Lufthansa and American Airlines.
Bon voyage and bon appetit!
