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Aeroporti di Roma Executive Vice President Commercial Services Fulvio Fassone |
ITALY. Rome airport authority Aeroporti di Roma (ADR) has awarded four food & beverage contracts at Rome Fiumicino Airport to Elior Group (MyChef), Autogrill and Cremonini Group (Chef Express).
As reported, the airport company launched a tender in June last year for five contracts with six-year terms. Four out of the five contracts have been awarded with the 1,100sq m airside food court operator yet to be announced.
Two new branded wine bars, Ferrari Spazio Bollicine and Rosso Intenso, have opened, replacing two Dei Frescobaldi outlets.
The first Ferrari Spazio Bollicine has opened airside in Terminal 1 Area B, where passengers board Alitalia domestic flights. The 65sq m concept was created by MyChef (Elior Group) in a joint-venture with Cantine Ferrari, a leading producer of Italian sparkling wine.
ADR Head of Food & Beverage Retail Concession Francesco Malservisi told The Foodie Report that the Ferrari Spazio Bollicine shares many features with the Dei Frescobaldi concept it replaced, except it focuses more on sparkling wines. The design features a central island, LED lighting and Bisazza tiles.
The food offer is strictly cold with a menu created by Alfio Ghezzi, the award-winning chef of Trento restaurant Locanda Margon. Options include Campania buffalo mozzarella cheese, Parma ham, Zibello culatello, salads, pickled and smoked fishes, steak tartare and cold roast.
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MyChef’s brand new Ferrari Spazio Bollicine wine bar concept in Terminal 1 |
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ADR Head of Food & Beverage Retail Concession Francesco Malservisi |
In T3, Autogrill debuts its Rosso Intenso concept, inspired by the concessionaire’s proprietary wine brand Beaudevin. The Zonin winery was selected as exclusive supplier of the unit with a range of 35 white and red wines.
“Beaudevin did not fit with the customers’ expectations in terms of Italian cuisine,” explained Malservisi. “The brand new format focuses on cheese and deli trays, with a constant rotation of excellent local products.”
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Autogrill’s Rosso Intenso wine bar will serve a wide range from the Zonin Winery |
In the tender, Chef Express (Cremonini Group) retained both its subconcession spaces.
The T2 landside space recently re-opened and features a 60sq m L’Emporio newsstand and a 246 sq m integrated offer featuring a Mokà snack-bar, Rossosapore (a Sebeto brand) pizza corner and Algida Store ice-cream. The latter is a joint-venture creation with Unilever.
A similar integrated offer (207sq m) will soon open airside at Area D, replacing the company’s Chef Express Wine & Truffles Bar.
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Rossosapore: the Sebeto pizza corner in the Chef Express integrated landside dining concept |
What’s next
ADR Executive Vice President Commercial Services Fulvio Fassone told The Foodie Report that the airport company will tender more than 20 units (approximately half of its F&B network) between 2013 and 2014.
“Right now we deal with 10 different partners, including the four main concessions caterers of the market (Autogrill, MyChef, Chef Express and Airest),” said Fassone. “We have a model based on the snack bar format that has so far been the best solution for the Italian customers.
“But our market is changing very quickly: due to competition from high-speed rail, the share of domestic flights is decreasing, while increasing the contribution of non-European passengers.”
The food & beverage offer at Rome Fiumicino focuses predominantly on Italian cuisine, but the airport is renovating and expanding the commercial areas, bringing in more fast casual concepts and international brands and flavours.
“As long as the Italian traditional offer was enough to cope with the customer needs, the difficulty of providing credible domestic formulas, the average duration of the contracts and the lack of critical mass kept away important players from our tenders. In time, I think there will brand new opportunities for them to enter our market,” explains Fassone.
*NOTE: The Foodie Report is the sister title of The Moodie Report. Published monthly within The Moodie Report e-Zine, plus regular coverage on this website, The Foodie Report covers all revenue-generating travel-related food & beverage. For your free subscription please e-mail Genevieve.Knevitt@TheMoodieReport.com.
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