One of Kenya’s last monopolies will finally be broken, when Lufthansa’s catering subsidiary company LSG Sky Chefs will set up shop at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after being given a concession as second caterer by the Kenya Airport Authority.
NAS has held the monopoly literally since Kenya’s independence, first at the Embakasi Airport before the moving to the new JKIA in 1978 but also at the Port Reitz Airport before the new Moi International Airport was opened in Mombasa. NAS has in the recent past taken new partners on board, apparently in preparation of the competitive onslaught of a global aviation catering giant like Sky Chefs, which allowed NAS to begin bringing their operation in line with the latest standards in this line of business. Servair, a French based catering multinational, acquired a majority stake some time ago at a reported cost of over 25 million US Dollars while Centum, a financial investment company, now holds a 15 percent stake.
LSG Sky Chefs new Kenyan unit will make it a total of 5 on the continent, with their largest African operation in South Africa, where three airports are served by them. It is expected that when the new facility has been set up and is operational, likely to be in late 2014, a number of airlines, in particular those which have contracts with Sky Chefs elsewhere, many of them members of Star Alliance, will switch from NAS to the new outfit, as competition over both cost as well as quality will undoubtedly stir up this long stagnant market. Both KAA and LSG Sky Chefs have confirmed the development yesterday.
