Newrest in Portugal

The 2017 fiscal year for the Newrest Portugal teams was a year of consolidation with the reworking of internal procedures, particularly on management control. The subsidiary is mainly dedicated to the Inflight and Rail sectors (62 % and 36 % of turnover respectively).

Newrest Inflight Portugal started operations in 2005, at Faro.
In April 2011, Newrest Holding took over 100% of the operations of Gate Gourmet Portugal (stations of Lisboa and 50% of Funchal-Madeira ) and changed the name to Restflight – Serviços de catering Unipessoal Lda.

In 2015, Restflight obtained a Licence for Porto Airport.

Since 2010, with the purchase of the ‘Compagnie des Wagons-Lits’, Newrest Portugal has become the main actor of Rail Catering in Portugal through 3 contracts with Comboios de Portugal : Intercidade, International and Fast Trains Alfa Pendulares.

Newrest Portugal therefore employs 250 people operating in 3 Inflight Units (LIS, FAO and FNC) and 2 Rail Logistic centers (LIS,POR).

In the Inflight business, sales increased by 10 %, benefiting in particular from the increase in traffic on its two main customers, Ryanair and United. An important contract with EVELOP / ORBEST has been signed on Lisbon. The higher turnover was accompanied by positive results, due to better costs control and productivity, resulting from the restructuring initiated last year. The ISO 9001 Certification was obtained in Lisbon and will be sought for Faro in 2017. The commercial development and the modernization of the production tools are now the priorities.

The activity remains stable in Catering: the contract for the airport catering in Faro has been renewed, for approximately 150 meals a day.

In the Rail sector, the Portuguese subsidiary is currently operating on three contracts for the ‘Comboios de Portugal’ company: Alfa Pendular high-speed trains, International and Intercités. The year 2015-16 helped to maintain constant revenue growth (IC + Interna- tional): + 2 % compared to the previous year. The Alfa Pendular launch contract on October 1st, 2015 provoked a multi-million euro jump in terms of turnover. The difficulties related to the launch and integration of this new contract have had the effect of degrading the profitability of the subsidiary. The year 2017 will be an opportunity to fully benefit from the synergies created by pooling the 3 contracts.