LSG Group – LSG Sky Chefs and Retail inMotion – has reported revenue growth of 75% to €1,960 million for its 2022 fiscal year, a recovery to 85% of its pre-pandemic sales. 

The company is seeing the results of a three-pillar growth strategy it adopted in 2021: airline catering at the heart of the business, food commerce set to drive expansion, and onboard retail as the engine set to “power” growth. 

Going forward it said it will focus on offering tailored trending products, delivering value for money, digitalisation, convenience and health and ESG.

A number of business wins helped propel sales, including extensions to Retail inMotion’s airline partnerships. Its agreement with Spirit Airlines will continue for another five years, while its contract with Aer Lingus has been extended by three years. 

LSG also relaunched its inflight boutique business with a new product range on board Lufthansa and SWISS intercontinental. 

LSG Sky Chefs secured and extended catering contracts across all regions, including with Air France-KLM in seven of its 11 units. Copa Airlines extended its contract across 23 stations in North America and Canada, while China Southern Airlines in Thailand and Brazil’s GOL were also retained. 

New catering contracts were agreed with Condor, Greater Bay Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Vietnam Airlines and Air New Zealand.

The business’s food commerce segment, which includes its ghost kitchen business, is now focusing on North America and Latin America. Denver, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta and Minneapolis-St Paul have been identified as key markets. 

LSG Group: ‘Particularly satisfying’ results

“This result is particularly satisfying considering the lingering after-effects of the pandemic, a slow market recovery in Asia, stubborn inflation and a difficult labour market,” said LSG Group CFO Wilken Bormann. 

Erdmann Rauer, CEO of the LSG Group, added: “Our goal is to strengthen our core business, identifying and developing new business models and reclaiming our number one position in our customers’ choice and markets.

“Classic Catering is our foundation. We want no less than to transform the airline catering industry by further enhancing our technology capacity for customisation and working with our customers to help them reach a new level of innovation in their catering concepts. 

“At the same time, we want to grow our food-commerce models to serve a new host of customers in the retail and related sectors.” 

LSG also shared sustainability growth areas based on people, planet and prosperity with set KPIs. One example is a company sourcing pledge to move to cage-free eggs within five years.