The fully SAirGroup owned SAirRelations was created as a holding for all Restauration, Catering and Hotel related businesses of the SAirGroup. Although very similiar in its business the different companies had clearly defined business areas were they were mostly quite succesful. The SAirRelations Companies were profitable and the SAirGroup sold Swissôtel shortly before its demise. Unfortunately they were not willing to sell further companies such as Nuance, which has shown to be a bad move. After 9/11 these companies quickly lost a lot of value, and were sold off after the SAirGRoup demise.
Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts was the global hotel management company of the SAirGroup.
Swissair started having own hotels very soon, which were part of Swissair Beteiligungen AG.
In 1980, Swissotel as a company was founded, and in 1997 Swissotel was integrated into SAirRelations.
In 2001 Swissotel Hotels & Resorts' portfolio comprised 25 properties represented in major business, cultural and leisure destinations around the world. The chain operated properties in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Lima, Quito, Amsterdam, Basel, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Geneva, London, Montreux, Zurich, Beijing, Dalian, Cairo, and Istanbul, with 3 properties under development in Egypt, Turkey and Germany.On April 23rd 2001 Swissotel was sold by the SAirGroup to Raffles International, Singapore. They adopted their Logo accordingly, but now have an own logo again. Surprisingly, the old Swissotel Logo with the Swissair Symbol was still kept for a long time on top of Swissotel Zürich, but has now been replaced as well.
Today, Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts is a distinctive group of 26 deluxe hotels for today's discerning modern business and leisure traveller.
Gate gourmet was founded in July 1992 through a merger of the Swissair company ICS International Catering Services and the catering operations of Swissair Papadacos Catering Athens joins the Gate Gourmet Group. In 1993 to 1999 GateGourmet buys many other kitchens and Catering services steadily growing.
In December 1996 the Swissair Group changes its name to SAir Group. Gate Gourmet - together with Rail Gourmet, Swissôtel, Nuance, Restorama and Restosana - form the SAirRelations division (former Swissair Associated Companies).
In July 1999 Gate Gourmet acquires Dobbs International Services, Inc.
Gate Gourmet now operates 142 flight kitchens in 27 countries with approx. 26,000 staff, making it one of the world's biggest caterers
After the SAirGroup went bankrupt, Swissair Group signs the definitive purchase agreement in March 2002 with Texas Pacific Group, a leading global private equity firm, on the sale of Gate Gourmet, Swissair Group's airline catering business. Related Links
Go to complete history overview 1992-2002
Go to Homepage of Gategourmet
Nuance has had an eventful history since the company was established in 1992. What started out as the amalgamation of the duty-free operations of Swissair and Crossair has grown to become the world's largest airport retailer and the global number one in duty-free sales.
This phenomenal growth has been largely achieved through acquisitions, particularly of Allders International Duty-Free in 1996. In the process, Nuance has taken a patchwork of successful but independent travel retail companies and fused them into a single strong corporation with one shared mission that makes optimum use of its constituent members' local strengths and expertise.
MILESTONES IN THE NUANCE STORY 1917 Ocean Trading begins operating on board cruise ships 1955 Duty-free sales begin on board Swissair 1961 First tax-free shop at Zurich Airport 1992 Nuance founded through merger of Swissair and Crossair duty-free operations 1995 Aquisition of Downtown Duty Free and City International Duty Free, both Australia 1996 Acquisition of Allders International Duty Free and Island Companies, Grand Cayman 2000 Strategic reorientation and birth of The Nuance Group 2002 Nuance is acquired by Gruppo PAM SpA and Stefanel SpA
Gourmetnova operated various Restaurants at Airports and Railway stations in the UK and Finland. It had around 460 employees in 2001.
After SAirGroup declared bankruptcy, GourmetNova was one of the first companies to be liquidated.
The airport restaurants were quickly sold (e.g. the ones at ZRH to Autogrill SpA from Italy) or to SSP. Without restaurants, all that remained was the design department, which would design the restaurants. All these people were let go and the assets liquidated.
