Companies

NAS Servair now targets non-airline customers

NAS Servair will soon start supplying other sectors other than aviation.

The caterer has signed a lunch deal from September with the French School in Nairobi.

The new contract is part of the company’s expansion plan to find new revenue streams and spread its risks; currently 80 per cent of its business is in-flight catering.

Earlier in the year, the company launched NAS cuisine, which caters for corporate bodies in the city.

Although known for meals, it is spreading wings beyond airlines and looking at different opportunities including training, sourcing cutlery and managing equipment for airlines.

The new contract with the school will see NAS Cuisine add 400 meals as the company looks to double the daily meal demand from the current 3,000 by year-end.

“There is demand for catering and we expect this part of the business to grow because we already have the experience and facility,” said Eric Rouvillois, NAS Servair’s general manager.

NAS Servair is targeting to offer meals to schools, hospitals, and other events.

Most of the cooking will be done at the airport facility, though NAS has a provision for working from a client’s facility.

It has secured at least 10 clients including British American Tobacco, Toyota Kenya, Standard Group, Chloride Exide, Nestle and The Mater Hospital.
Kenyan companies enjoy a tax relief of Sh3,600 per month on every employee served with a company-sponsored meal.

In a change of tack influenced partly by the retendering for a new caterer by the Kenya Airports Authority, Mr Rouvillois told Business Dail— without giving details— that they were repositioning themselves as “an airline solution company.”

They are looking at opportunities to negotiate best prices for purchases connected to in-flight services, including tissue paper, cutlery, stock management and logistics, the general manager said.

“We have a project in place, we hope it materialises. We are working as a team with airlines, all of us focused on savings,” he said.
Mr Rouvillois moved to Kenya in December 2010 when Servair bought 59 per cent of NAS after years of working in different markets for the French company, where he has worked for 20 years.

The family man who likes cooking has spent most of his time outside France in West Africa and in the Caribbean.

Before coming to Kenya he was in Cameroon for three and a half years and four years in Mauritania.

Other than in-flight catering and cuisine, the company manages Kenya Airways’ lounge at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), including the Simba lounge, which is exclusive to SKY Team partners, including KLM.

With the new terminal 4 at JKIA expected to be exclusive to Kenya Airways and its partners, NAS Servair sees an opportunity to further grow its business.