HAMBURG: Dubai-based airline and shipping services group Dnata is looking at acquisition opportunities in the Americas, Africa and Asia to make its flight catering business truly global as the industry consolidates, its divisional chief said.
“Our airline customers operate on a global basis and they are seeking consistency,” Dnata Catering Chief Executive Robin Padgett told Reuters at a trade fair in Hamburg.
“But as a service industry we have tended to operate almost as mom and pop operations and very few are able to give a global offering.”
He said Dnata, which is part of Emirates Group and competes in onboard catering with Lufthansa’s LSG and Austria’s Do&Co., had already played a part in consolidation with acquisitions such as Alpha Flight Group in 2010. The sector is now once again consolidating, driven especially by China’s HNA Group, which recently took over European firms Gate Group and Servair.
“We want to beef up and give a wider spread to our customer base,” Padgett said.
The catering industry is also grappling with more and more carriers shifting to buy-on-board options for food, forcing them to rethink strategies and invest in retail options.
Padgett said buy-on-board was now the norm for short-haul and predicted it could soon take hold on long-haul flights, especially with the increasing number of low-cost long-haul carriers.
“I think long-haul retail, if executed properly, will go down very well,” he said.
He also expects pre-order meal services will become more popular among airlines, highlighting how they give airlines more certainty in terms of revenue and lead to less waste.
In Europe, such services are already common on charter carriers but they are becoming more popular elsewhere. Ryanair has started offering a hot cooked breakfast as a pre-order option on early flights from Dublin, while Air Berlin also has a pre-order menu for economy passengers on long-haul flights on top of their standard meals.
“What we have not done is give a reason for pre-ordering — are you, as the customer, going to get a better deal from pre-ordering?” Padgett said.
Dnata looking for more catering acquisitions
Dnata looking for more catering acquisitions
Copper slips as subdued demand, high inventories weigh
LONDON: Copper fell on Thursday, giving up some gains from the previous session as rising inventories and subdued demand due to the holiday in top metals consumer China weighed on prices.
Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange edged down 0.7 percent to $12,816 a metric tonne as of 1:10 p.m. Saudi time, after a 2.3 percent jump on Wednesday.
The Shanghai Futures Exchange is closed until February 23 for Lunar New Year, with Chinese traders largely out of the market.
“It’s really difficult to read too much into the price action this week,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. “We need to get China back and see what happens then, both on the speculative and also on the physical demand in the following weeks.”
The dollar dipped but held above its recent lows after minutes from the US Federal Reserve showed policymakers did not seem to be in a rush to cut interest rates and that several were open to hikes if inflation proved sticky.
A weaker US dollar makes greenback-priced metals more affordable for holders of other currencies.
Copper stocks in LME-approved warehouses meanwhile increased by another 925 tonnes to 225,575 tonnes, the highest since March.
While high stocks were weighing on prices, copper was being propped up by technicals, Hansen explained. “Since last August, every time we have come down the 50-day moving average has been giving support,” he said, adding that the support level was currently at $12,670.
In other metals, zinc fell 0.3 percent to $3,342.50 a tonne and aluminum shed 0.7 percent to $3,067, after breaking a four-day losing streak on Wednesday. Lead edged up 0.1 percent to $1,965, nickel nudged up 0.6 percent to $17,375 and tin was up 0.5 percent at $46,120.
