NETHERLANDS. Broodzaak food & beverage locations at the Amersfoort, Haarlem and Leiden train stations in the Netherlands are converting to TRECK, a new brand from travel F&B specialist HMSHost International.
Over the next 18 months, all Broodzaak stores will have been rebranded as TRECK. These stores will have a wider F&B range and self-scan checkouts. The 415 employees of Broodzaak will be retrained and will continue to work for the new brand.
HMHost International won the tender for Broodzaak, which was issued by the Dutch Railways (NS) in July 2018, and has been operating all 29 locations of the brand since 1 December.
The ten-year contract is worth an estimated annual turnover of €30 million.
A key requirement of the NS tender was to outline a new future for Broodzaak, and HMSHost developed the new bread brand tailored for train stations and their passengers.
HMSHost International CEO Walter Seib said: “The Dutch Railways were looking for a partner with a successful plan for the future of Broodzaak and our ideas fit in well with it.
“Of course we offer financial stability, but moreover a personal touch with which we create locations that are more than just a stopover. They become places that travellers truly appreciate, ‘places to be’.”
HMSHost International conducted consumer research questioning 2,700 people. This revealed that travellers only have five minutes at the station on average, placing speed of service as essential. At the same time the data also showed that this speed of service should not come at the expense of quality and choices.
Seib added: “Our conclusion was that travellers needed a new brand with real, tasty food at the speed you may expect from a train station.”
Research also showed that at around 4pm, people tend to look for something warm, savoury, and relatively healthy. TRECK has responded to this with the inclusion of soup, small warm snacks and pizza twisters, specially developed for the brand, in the assortment.
Dutch Railways Director of Station Management and Operation Femke Woudstra said: “Stations are a crucial link in our door-to-door journey for our travellers. Our efforts are focused on making the stay on and the journey to and from the station as pleasant and easy as possible.
“We regularly examine the wishes of our travellers, so that we can respond to this with, among other things, a suitable and diverse range of shops and facilities for travellers and visitors at the stations.
“In everything we do, we put the services to our travellers first, and want to respond to the needs of the traveller. HMSHost anticipates these needs well with their new food formula TRECK. We are therefore curious about the reactions of the travellers to the new variety on offer.”
For HMSHost, TRECK is the largest own-brand in the Netherlands and the company said there are no plans to take it abroad.
HMSHost International has been working with the Dutch Railways since 2015 and, in addition to the Broodzaak, operates 17 Burger King stores and four La Place stores at Dutch stations, as well as operating Leon, ‘t Koffiehuis and Bar Centraal across the rail network.
In March 2018 HMSHost International also opened the first Dutch location of Pret A Manger at Utrecht Central Station.
