UK. Alpha LSG has opened a £10 million catering facility for London Heathrow that will start serving over 40 airlines from this month. Alpha LSG Board of Directors Chairman Jochen Müller, shareholders and customers attended the official opening of the Premium Kitchen earlier this month.
Scheduled to be fully operational from April, Premium Kitchen will produce 76,500 meals daily and cater for around 24,500 flights annually. The facility has the airport’s only dedicated Halal kitchen, a Japanese and Asian kitchen, Customer Lounge and a Culinary Academy.
Located in The Encompass Centre in Heston, Middlesex, the complex includes a 52,000sq ft production centre and a 124,000sq ft Dynamic Logistics Centre with extra wash capacity and dispatch chillers as well as additional dispatch and unloading bays.
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The £10 million facility features a Customer Lounge as well as London Heathrow’s only dedicated Halal kitchen, a Japanese and Asian kitchen and a Culinary Academy |
Alpha LSG Acting CEO Axel Bilstein said: “Our new flagship London Heathrow facility and Premium Kitchen brand provides strong proof of our strategic aim to become the UK leader in customer satisfaction as well as in cost.”
He added: “While our food innovation process (Culinary Academy), food production process (Premium Kitchen) and our unique Customer Lounge will support our customer’s desire for brand differentiation, choice and flair, we’re able to provide cutting-edge services at highly competitive cost thanks to efficient, best-in-class processes as well as a culture of continuous improvement.”
Alpha LSG Chief Operating Officer Alex Forbes said: “Our new state-of-the-art Premium Kitchen is an exciting creation that will set the benchmark for airline catering. To meet the demand for innovative, better quality food while simultaneously supporting our airline customers, who continue to face enormous budgetary pressures in a highly competitive environment, we have increased our focus, efficiency and expertise in our key service areas (food production, food development and innovation as well as logistics).
“We have also changed the way we do things by taking a unique modular approach to service provision while retaining maximum operational flexibility by operating in adjacent facilities on the same estate.”
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The Culinary Academy is at the heart of Alpha LSG’s Premium Kitchen concept to offer better quality food while supporting airlines’ budgetary requirements |
Hospitality specialist Marc Warde is heading up the Premium Kitchen as Director where he is responsible for business development, culinary excellence and all food production. The Culinary Academy is a partnership with UK chefs’ association, the Craft Guild of Chefs, which counts 120 Alpha LSG chefs as members.
In addition, Alpha LSG chefs have been mentored and trained by former Royal chef Chris Barber, who has cooked for The Queen and was the personal chef for Prince Charles for 12 years.
Warde said: “Food and people are at the heart of our business and our Culinary Academy is situated at the heart of Premium Kitchen. This is where we nurture and grow our culinary expertise and build relationships with strategic partners and suppliers.
“Our Culinary Academy will allow our chefs to showcase their skills across various cuisines and use the latest in kitchen technology – providing the ideal space to do things differently, think creatively and stand out from the crowd.”
Alpha LSG currently provides catering services from facilities located at 16 airports throughout the UK, including London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
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The sky’s the limit: Alpha LSG said it hopes to set new standards in airline catering with the launch of the Premium Kitchen facility |
