LSG Sky Chefs establishes frozen-food facility in the U.S.

LSG Sky Chefs is setting up a new frozen-food manufacturing facility in its existing Customer Service Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to be completed in late 2007.

The in-flight service provider is taking this step in order to meet the growing demand for frozen-food meals in the U.S. airline catering market, primarily in Economy Class, but with increasing acceptance in Business Class as well. Using one of its existing facilities for this purpose offers LSG Sky Chefs a number of advantages. Pittsburgh has also been chosen because of its close proximity to international gateways on the U.S. East Coast and in the Midwest, thus facilitating the possibility of direct shipment to those locations. The plan is to begin frozen-meal production in Pittsburgh in mid-November 2007, in time for LSG Sky Chefs’ airline customers 2008 menu cycles.

The transformation of the Pittsburgh facility will be done in close collaboration with LSG Sky Chefs’ frozen food competence center LSG-Sky Food in Alzey, Germany, to leverage customer relationships and take advantage of the specialists’ operational expertise.

“The presence of a frozen-food production facility in the U.S. is an important step forward in our expansion strategy for this business, which was just recently strengthened by the signing of a new joint venture for frozen-food in China opening in early 2008”, commented Jochen Müller, Chief Sales and Solutions Officer.