US. Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport had a total 19 operators submit proposals on the 17 concession packages it opened to offers late last year (The Moodie Report, 26 September 2004).
The RFP from the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) specified opportunities for six retail concessions (17 locations) and 116 other food & beverage and service locations at the airport making a total 133 outlets.
Proposers were allowed to submit offers from one to all of the contracts – allowing developers, operators and small businesses to compete. Minimum Annual Guarantees are understood to be preset. BAA USA and Westfield Concessions Management have emerged as the only operators to submit bids across the whole programme.
The Moodie Report understands that Duty Free Americas has bid against Minnesota Retail Partners for the 2,000sq ft (186sq m) duty free store. In food & beverage (batches 1 to 7) the airport incumbent for the past 20 years – and also the current duty free retailer – HMSHost is pitched against CA One Services. Lancer Management Services, Creative Host Services and Anton Airfood (North Terminal only) also submitted proposals for certain F&B locations. HMSHost submitted offers only for F&B and not for retail.
In news and convenience stores (batches 8 to 9) the AMS-UTA Minneapolis joint venture bid against CA One Services, Minnesota Retail Partners and The Paradies Shops. In vending ARAMARK Refreshment Services is pitched against Canteen Vending, Midwest Vending, Taher and Theisen Vending. For the bookstores Borders bid against Minnesota Retail Partners. In speciality retail (batches 12 to 16) Minnesota Retail Partners, Paradies, Airport Management Services are in competition for certain contracts.
For the DVD rental concession only one proposal was received from Project Horizon (trading as InMotion Pictures) which is expected to go through to the approval stage.
In total the concession plan involves the following contracts:
* two news/convenience batches (17 locations)
* one vending batch (36 locations)
* seven food & beverage batches (49 locations)
* one bookstore batch (4 locations)
* one DVD rental & electronic retail batch (2 locations)
* five speciality retail batches (25 locations)
All proposals submitted by the 26 February deadline are understood to have met or exceeded the minimum requirements set out in the RFP, subject to final verification by the MAC Management & Operations Committee.
