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Colombo, May 30, 2019: SriLankan Catering Ltd. has recorded a steady financial performance for the financial year ended 31^st March 2019 with a 24% year-on-year growth in operating profits from Rs. 3.8 billion to Rs. 4.7 billion, according to its unaudited financial statement. SriLankan Catering is the fully owned subsidiary of SriLankan Airlines.

Its operating profit ratio, which stood at 44% in the year 2017/18, improved to 48% during the year 2018/19. The Company also reported a post-tax, net profit of Rs. 5.7 billion during the year, which is a 46% increase compared to the previous year. The net exchange gain increased from Rs. 202 million in 2017/18 to Rs. 1,070 million in 2018/19.

G.S. Withanage, Chairman of SriLankan Catering, who is also the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines, said: "SriLankan Catering continues to be a tower of strength to our nation and the SriLankan Airlines Group, with yet another stellar performance. The Company has proven itself to be a perfect example of consistency and has crossed the Rs. 3 billion profit mark every year in the last four years. This performance for the financial year 2018/19 was a 48% increase over the operating profit of the previous year and is a tremendous achievement.”

Lalith Withana, Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Catering, said: "The impressive performance of the Company demonstrates the strong commitment of our staff, negotiation skills and financial discipline of the Company. Our team has worked hard to overcome the multiple challenges faced during the year and achieved many new initiatives, including upgrading some of our facilities and processes.”

SriLankan Catering provides approximately 24,000 inflight meals per day for airlines that operate to the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA). These include globally reputed airlines such as Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways, Malaysian Airlines, Air China, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Korean Air, Turkish Airlines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and SriLankan Airlines. It is equipped with a state of the art flight kitchen for the production of food and beverages and also operates restaurants and lounges at BIA and MRIA.

SriLankan Catering Ltd is certified to the standards of ISO 9001:2015, HACCP-Codex Alimentarius, ISO 22000:2005 and ISO 14001-2015, and is among the rare handful of inflight catering companies anywhere in the world to have all of these global certifications.

The Company has won several global and local accolades in recent times, including a Mercury Award from the International Flight Catering Association. During the year SriLankan Catering was adjudged the winner at the National Business Excellence Awards under the “Best State Services Sector” in extra-large category. The Company also won the Presidential Export Award for the year 2017/18, which it received for the third consecutive year as the highest exchange earner under the category of “Processed Food and Beverages”.