dnata to acquire catering businesses of Qantas Airways

April 11, 2018: Dubai-based global air services provider dnata, recently signed an agreement to acquire catering businesses of Qantas Airways. However, the deal is pending approvals from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Under the agreement, dnata will supply catering for Qantas Airways, for an initial period of ten years, and Qantas will continue to work with key suppliers in menu design and development.

Catering businesses of Qantas Airways, includes its wholly-owned subsidiaries — Q Catering Limited and Snap Fresh Pty Limited. It has presence across four Australian ports, such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, and its largest airline customer is Qantas. On the other hand, Snap Fresh is a state-of-the-art meal production plant located in Queensland, which specialises in Australian-made frozen meals for airlines and customers in the healthcare and food retail industries.

Commenting on the agreement, Robin Padgett, divisional senior vice president of catering, dnata said: “This agreement reflects our confidence in Australia as a market, and the ongoing growth potential into the future.”

“By combining dnata’s network strength and international talent with Qantas’ domestic catering expertise, the acquisition will allow us to further grow our presence, and deliver catering excellence to more customers across Australia than ever before. We will be investing in infrastructure, and commence a new catering facility in Sydney,” said Padgett.

“We welcome employees from Qantas’ inflight catering businesses to the dnata team,” he said.

Andrew David, CEO, Qantas Domestic said: “The catering businesses will benefit significantly from dnata’s global footprint, catering expertise, and ability to drive investment and growth for what is a core focus of its operation.”

“Customers will continue to enjoy Qantas’ premium service, including unique Rockpool-designed menus for first and business class passengers, thereby showcasing the best of Australian produce for millions of travellers every year,” said David.

“Along with dnata, we will continue to deliver the inflight food and beverage experience to our customers, just as we work with catering companies in offshore ports for our international flights,” said David.

dnata already operates 11 catering facilities in Australia, currently trading under the dnata catering brand (recently rebranded from Alpha Flight Services). dnata employs more than 4000 people in Australia across its catering, cargo and ground handling businesses.

Over the past 12 months, dnata has invested significantly to growing its global catering network. Its most recent milestones includes the opening of a catering facility in Dublin, Ireland, the opening of its $50m Melbourne catering facility and an agreement to acquire New York-based caterer 121 inflight catering. It is also currently constructing a facility in Vancouver, Canada.