Express Catering bullish on business despite travel dip
Published:Wednesday | October 16, 2024 | 12:05 AM
Express Catering Limited, which operates several restaurants at the Sangster International Airport, expects a positive outlook despite a double-digit dip in total passengers at the nation’s busiest airport in September.
September to November is always the “most challenging” due to back-to-school trends, Ian Dear, Express Catering CEO, told the Financial Gleaner.
Added to that is the upcoming presidential election in the United States.
“This year, with November being a US election year, it may also impact travel. Despite these challenges, we remain optimistic about continuing to improve and grow our revenue and profitability moving forward,” Dear said.
The dip in travel traffic comes as Express Catering positioned its operations to make higher profit. The food service company earned US$1 million for its June-August first quarter, which was 20 per cent higher year on year. It was in contrast to the May 2023 full-year profit, which was down 48 per cent year on year to US$1.4 million, from US$2.7 million a year earlier. The company’s bottom line was impacted by rising administrative costs. In the first quarter, however, Express Catering effected measures that reduced its cost of sales, and grew its bottom line earnings despite another round of rising wages.
“The outlook for the rest of fiscal 2025 is that it will be marginally ahead of fiscal 2024,” said the company in its statement to shareholders.
The board indicated that up to the second half of calendar 2024, incoming passenger traffic at the airport was ahead of the prior year. Management also expects that the 1,000 new hotel rooms coming on stream will attract more travellers.
“The expectation is that this will certainly lead to incremental visitor arrivals. We look forward to this contributing to improved revenues in fiscal 2025,” Express Catering said.
For the month of September, however, passenger traffic at Sangster International dipped by 11.5 per cent to 287,000 down from 324,000 a year earlier, according to data from the Pacific Airport Group. Sangster is operated through concessionaire MBJ Airports Limited, a company owned 74.5 per cent by Pacific Airport of Mexico and 15.5 per cent by Canada-based Vantage Airport Group.
Year to date, January and September, the 3.9 million passengers who passed through the airport reflected a 1.7 per cent decline in travel traffic, year on year.
Express Catering has recently spent millions expanding its operations from 24 restaurants and stores to about 31. Some of its franchise stores include Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, Moe’s Southwest Grill, International Dairy Queen, Quiznos, Nathan’s Hot Dogs, Wendy’s, Starbucks and Domino’s. These are complemented by a number of proprietary and other Jamaican food and beverage brands, including Bobsled Café, Viva Gourmet, Grab N Go, Groovy Grouper and Tastee Patties.
Express Catering’s annual revenue, for year ending May 2024, grew to US$25.6 million from US$21.2 million. The company has shaken off the malaise of the pandemic which saw its yearly revenue falling to a low of US$4.4 million in 2021. Annual sales were tracking at US$17 million prior to the pandemic.