GERMANY. The 111-year-old Viennese café and pastry shop brand Aïda opened a 19sq m to-go store with franchise partner Allresto Flughafen München Hotel und Gaststätten in Munich Airport Terminal 2 yesterday.
The venue, situated in a prime location after security alongside other F&B concessions with a large shared seating area, takes the Aïda concept into travel retail outside Austria for the first time.
The café menu offers Viennese wine, 25 coffee varieties, savoury snacks and 40 types of cake.
In the run-up to the opening, the entire Allresto Aïda Munich serving team went to Vienna to undergo intensive training on the brand’s food products and the preparation of coffee specialities. “This was in order to give the authentic and famous Viennese Aïda feeling to all guests at Munich Airport,” said Aïda Executive Director Dominik Prousek.
Speaking exclusively to The Moodie Davitt Report today from the airport, where he has stayed on to cast an eye over the early performance of the concession, Prousek told us: “It is so exciting to see the early interest in Aïda here, with pretty much constant queues for our to-go offer throughout the day.
“It’s been a joy working with Allresto’s dynamic young team to get this open; Managing Director Andreas Reichert has really bought into our vision.
“Allresto has great experience as a concessionaire at this airport and has forecast revenues of up to €2 million in the first 12 months, or about €6,000 a day. Even though it is a relatively small shop, from what I have seen so far that prediction looks more than realistic. This is going be a great showcase to attract new travel retail franchise partners across the world and I think there are great prospects for expansion with Allresto.”
Prousek noted that almost 3 million tourists from Germany visit Vienna every year, and that many of them will already be familiar with Aïda, which operates 29 cafés in the city.
On the selection of Munich for a first airport venture outside Austria, he commented: “With a population of 80 million, Germany is the big brother of Austria, where we have eight million people. It seemed a logical step to try here first at this great airport in Munich, which has close proximity to Austria. It is a big step for us to open our first shop here.”
Aïda, renowned for its pink-dominated look, currently operates five franchise stores in partnership with Lagardère Travel Retail in its home country, including two at Vienna International Airport. As reported, it also recently announced an ambitious venture at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport with SSP Group.
Prousek, who revealed to us a second location at Munich Airport is already a strong possibility, added: “We are thus continuing our plan to bring Viennese hospitality, the coffee house culture with its countless coffee specialities and deliciously sweet confectionery temptations, to the world. The partnership with Allresto opens up another opportunity for us to get a little closer to this goal.”
Allresto Managing Director Andreas Reichert commented: “The opening of the Aïda Café-Konditorei at Munich Airport is an exciting step towards offering our guests a unique culinary experience. We are proud to bring a touch of Viennese charm and quality to the airport’s dining scene and look forward to presenting our visitors with first-class delights.”
Read the story to Aïda’s rise to fame in Austria in our special FAB eZine report, which also covers our visit to Vienna for an immersive brand experience in the company of Prousek, via this link. 
