|
Gate Gourmet is an airline catering firm with headquarters on the grounds of Zürich Airport, Switzerland, near Zürich.〔"(Contact Us )." Gate Gourmet. Retrieved on 12 February 2010.〕 Gate Gourmet was founded in 1992, and is the world's largest independent airline catering, hospitality and logistics company.〔(Waking the Green Giants: World's largest airlines caterer Gate Gourmet to implement sustainable policies )〕 As a part of parent company Gate Group, the company has substantially expanded its products and services recently through acquisitions and strategic investments. The portfolio now includes cabin service ware (deSter); comfort/entertainment items (Harmony); packaged food components assembled in central production units (Supplair); aviation services such as cabin cleaning, aircraft washing and de-icing and passenger services (Gate Aviation (Fernley/IAS - see below )); catering security (Gate Safe); business applications (eGate Solutions) and supply chain optimization (partnership with Pourshins). As of 2004, it had 22,000 employees, had a revenue of 2.4 billion Swiss Francs, and produced 195 million flight meals per year. Some of its clients are British Airways, LAN Airlines, Air Algérie, Air Canada, Air Transat, American Airlines, United Airlines, Qantas Airways, Aerolíneas Argentinas, Avianca, Iberia Airlines, Air China, Air France, Delta Air Lines, Emirates Airline, Thai Airways International, Swiss International Air Lines, TAM Airlines, Airblue, Air Indus, Shaheen Air International, Amtrak and EasyJet. Gate Gourmet's roots are in Swissair. For a long time, Gate Gourmet was considered Swissair's "Crown Jewel". The company was worth roughly 6 billion Swiss Francs before the September 11 attacks and the bankruptcy of Swissair. The rise of oil prices and collapse in consumer travel damaged the airlines and many of Gate Gourmet's main customers went bankrupt or narrowly avoided bankruptcy. The weakness of the airlines affected the industries that cater to or support it. This eventually set the stage for Swissair's crown jewel requiring a restructuring effort, which soon burdened its employees. The company was then sold in 2002 to Texas Pacific Group for USD $870 million,〔(Reuters Article )〕 and later its ownership became known as GateGroup. ==Disputes and strike action== A major dispute, reminiscent of the Grunwick dispute of the 1970s, ensued when it sacked 670 staff based at London Heathrow Airport in August 2005; the staff were gathered in a car park and the announcement made by megaphone.〔(Personnel Today ), 31 August 2005〕 In sympathy with the sacked workers, British Airways staff at the airport walked out, and mass pickets of Gate Gourmet were organised by the Transport and General Workers' Union. Several workers alleged that Gate Gourmet had engineered the dispute, in order to employ non-union workers at lower rates of pay and with worse conditions of employment. The company subsequently offered a redundancy package of more than twice the statutory minimum in an effort to resolve the labour difficulties, secure a new deal with British Airways, and avoid insolvency. The union later negotiated the reinstatement of some of the employees, but others have continued to protest at their treatment. On 1 March 2007, Texas Pacific Group sold its remaining shares in Gate Gourmet to Merrill Lynch. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gate Gourmet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|