By CL Jose
Current year numbers point to smart recovery
KOCHI/February 15-2022: The Lulu Flight Kitchen Pvt Ltd (LFPL), from the stable of the storied Lulu Group, has reported an increase in loss to Rs21.56 crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2021 (FY21) compared with a loss of Rs8.79 crore the company logged for the previous year.
However, green shoots are visible in the current year after a sustained period of poor market conditions. The total operating income for the nine months ending December 31, 2021, has witnessed handsome growth to Rs20 crore surpassing that of the whole of FY21 at Rs19.12 crore
Total operating income for FY20 was Rs44.66 crore, which nosedived to Rs19.12 crore in FY21, from where it has now started recovering.
Operations remain small
CARE Ratings noted that LFPL has been affected by its small scale of operations with declined hotel occupancy levels and capacity utilization of catering division in FY21.
The occupancy levels of hotel stood at 31 per cent in FY21 against 83 per cent in the previous year due to the travel and lockdown restrictions following Covid pandemic.
“The capacity utilization of the flight catering division, which stood at 33.3 per cent in FY20 also declined to 6.81 per cent in FY21 due to slowdown in aviation sector,” the CARE note added.
No long-term debt
The company does not have any long-term bank debt as on date. “The debt profile majorly consists of unsecured loans from the promoters to the tune of Rs87.85 crore as on March 31, 2021,” the statement added.
On account of the continuing losses, the net worth eroded to Rs 12.27 crore as on March 31, 2021 from the level of Rs33.91 crore a year ago.
Timely funding from promoters to fund the losses as well as meet the interest obligations in case of liquidity crisis would continue to remain a key monitorable from a credit perspective, according to CARE.
Lulu Flight Kitchen was promoted in 2007 as a private limited company by Yusuff Ali and his brother Ashraf Ali, to primarily execute two projects involving establishment of an in-flight catering unit and a five-star category hotel having 106 rooms, both located near Cochin International Airport.
