Abela Airline Catering Improves Staff Rostering & Work Scheduling

Internationally Renowned Catering Company Chooses Rostima for Scalability, Flexibility and Ease of Deployment.

London, UK – June 19th , 2003 – Rostima Ltd, an acknowledged global leader in the supply of workforce scheduling software , today announced that Abela Airline Catering, a long-established and internationally renowned leader in the provision of airline catering, has selected its workforce rostering solution to deliver improved staff planning and rostering efficiencies at its Heathrow airport operation.

Abela Airline Catering has been delivering award-winning airline cuisine since the early 1960’s and is today recognised as an acknowledged leader in its field, producing and distributing more than 16,000 meals per day to many of the World’s largest airlines. Abela maintains its market leading position through a unique understanding of the airline catering industry, its development management systems and the degree of flexibility with which it operates.

Facing growing customer, industry and service levels demands, Abela Airline Catering sought to enhance its existing workforce scheduling systems and replace its incumbent rostering software with a more modern, functionally-rich solution that could cope with the company’s massive daily throughput, its demanding workforce schedules and its stringent deadlines.

Rostima’s Duty Manager™ was put through its paces to prove that it could deliver a system with more effective rosters and staff plans for the 200 staff employed at the Heathrow flight kitchen. The system highlighted many increased efficiencies and improved scheduling, and was selected by Abela Airline Catering as the system of choice for its Heathrow operation in March this year.

“We compared Rostima to other labour scheduling vendors but were most impressed by Rostima’s ability to scale with us as we grow, as well as provide more efficient and flexible rosters and daily staff plans,” said Graham Hobbs, UK General Manager for Abela Airline Catering. “We anticipate substantial gains in productivity and new levels of operational efficiency by embracing improved rostering and scheduling with systems with Rostima. “

Stephen Aitken, CEO of Rostima comments, “Companies, such as Abela, can gain an immediate and long-term competitive advantage by deploying modern, efficient rostering and workforce scheduling solutions, especially where they are responding to the rapidly changing needs of the airline industry.” Stephen continues, “We worked with the Abela team for some months to prove the difference that our systems could make on the efficiency and productivity of their staff rosters and daily plans and we are delighted to have been awarded this new contract for the Heathrow operation. We look forward to extending our working relationship to other divisions within the Abela Group.”

About Abela Airline Catering
Since the early 1960s, Abela Airline Catering developed its award winning in-flight catering division to the point where its name is now synonymous with quality airline cuisine. Today, Abela provides meals for a large proportion of the world's leading carriers.

Purpose-built catering units furnished with the most modern, technologically advanced kitchen equipment form the basis of the operation. But it is the Group's understanding of the airline catering industry; its development management systems and the degree of flexibility with which it can operate that together give the company its leading edge. The result is a high calibre service which can cope with a massive daily throughput, meet stringent deadlines and provide at short notice ethnic menus and meals to satisfy individual preferences.

Abela can also provide a comprehensive ground catering operation with restaurants, cafés and VIP lounges as well as a range of support services including cabin cleaning, airport terminal cleaning, airline equipment handling, ground handling services, duty free shops and bonded warehousing. Whatever the operation, the same high standards and stringent system of quality control remain paramount. For more information on Abela visit www.abela.co.uk.

About Rostima
Established in 1996, Rostima is a global leader in workforce management solutions. The open, flexible technologies developed by Rostima enable organisations to optimise their labour schedules by matching workload to staff resources thereby increasing operational efficiency, reducing labour costs, improving staff retention, and improving service levels.

Rostima’s flagship software, Rostima Scheduler™, has been selected by major corporates and medium sized organisations in the transport, logistics, airport services, hospitality, and retail sectors. Clients include Lufthansa Sky Chefs, P&O Ports, Securicor, ASIG and Australian Air Express.

Today, Rostima is defining the way organisations approach labour scheduling. For more information, call +44 (0)1628 581 630 or email sales@rostima.com

Note to Editors:
Rostima, Rostima Scheduler, RetailPlanner, DutyManager and DutyPlanner are trademarks or registered trademarks of Rostima Ltd. All other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.