Qantas Restructures Catering Operations

Qantas is to substantially restructure its catering business.

The first stage of the restructure is expected to provide a 45% increase on current Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) forecasts of $34 million.

The restructure will focus on the airline's two Sydney catering facilities - QFCL Sydney, located on our Sydney Jetbase, and Caterair Sydney, located nearby at Mascot. The greatest volume of the catering work is carried out at these two centres and each currently services both Qantas and its client airlines.

Qantas Executive General Manager Associated Businesses, Mr Grant Fenn, said, "Over the next nine months, we will reorganise the work by concentrating all client airline catering services in one facility and all the Qantas catering services in the other.

"This will enable us to operate more efficiently by streamlining processes at the dedicated facilities."

Mr Fenn said some positions would be affected by the change.

"We will manage the impact on our people as far as possible through redeployment, attrition and by reducing casual hours. As many as 30 redundancies may be required, but we expect these will all be achieved through expressions of interest."

Mr Fenn said that the restructure of Qantas' five other flight catering centres - in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Cairns - would also commence immediately.

"This will involve an extensive review of the supply chain - improving product engineering and demand forecasting, reducing inventory lines, leveraging our buying power and improving our use of food production technologies," he said.

Mr Fenn also confirmed that the Qantas Group's Brisbane-based Snap Fresh business would not be affected by the changes.

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