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BAA honoured the stars of the airport food & beverage world at a gala awards evening in London last night |
UK. BAA Retail held the third Food and Beverage Awards (FAB) 2006 last night at a star-studded gala evening for over 200 guests in London.
The FAB Awards recognise the quality, rising standards and committed staff throughout the catering outlets in BAA’s 11 terminals at seven UK airports.
The awards – with the catchline Let’s Celebrate – were held in association with Eve magazine and were hosted by celebrity chef James Martin, star of many popular TV programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing, who handed each winner their £1,000 prize money.
“BAA wants to reward the stars of airport catering, those that excel at serving the best food and drink in a clean and friendly environment,” said Colin Hargrave, Managing Director of UK Airport Retail. “The nominees and winners come here to a wonderful environment for the evening and have wonderful food and wine. They will remember this night forever; that is the brilliant thing about these awards,” he told The Moodie Report.
BAA Retail Director Stephen Nelson co-hosted the evening, paying tribute to the teamwork, service and “act of giving” that the F&B sector represented.
He said: “The FAB awards are a superb way of recognising all the dedication and enthusiasm the catering teams put into constantly evolving our food & beverage offer.
“Over 50% of our travellers use the catering facilities and services and we have invested heavily over the past few years to develop new concepts and introduce new brands and travel retail firsts to our airports.
He continued: “Working with our business partners Mitchells & Butlers we have recently opened the Drum and Monkey, a traditional style pub, and Bargo, a contemporary bar at Glasgow. Following on from the two travel retail firsts in 2005, The Tin Goose and Giraffe, another first for 2006 has been Square Pie, offering a range of classic and modern pies in Heathrow Terminal One. These openings further establish BAA Retail as leading the way in airport food & beverage,” he said.
The sponsors of the awards evening, held at the historic Gibson Hall in London’s financial district, were Costa, Wetherspoon, Starbucks, Ponti’s, TRG Concessions, Caffè Nero and Caviar House & Prunier.
About the FAB Awards
Airport operator BAA aims to reward the stars of airport catering – those that excel at serving the best food and drinks in a clean and friendly environment. Each month throughout the year BAA selects an Employee of the Month. All monthly winners receive an invitation to the annual FAB Awards evening. The Employee of the Year is announced at the event and the winner receives a cheque for £1,000.
Judging commences in January and continues through to May. BAA ensures that every person connected with airport catering has a fair chance of winning, so the judging process is in depth and covers many different angles:
– Catering QSM questionnaires and feedback
– Mystery traveller reports
– Passenger voting
– BAA Retail Operations nominations
-Sales performances
– Leatherhead Food Institute qualitative assessments
– Independent expert judges for certain categories, e.g. Best Coffee
The full list of FAB awards follows.
The 2006 Award Winners
Best Overall Outlet: This award covers everything from the quality of the food, drinks and service to the cleanliness of the outlet. Winner Scottish airports: Costa Coffee, Edinburgh Arrivals. Winner for the South East: Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bar, Heathrow T3 airside.
Most Improved: The outlet that has made the greatest progress year-on-year in terms of both food quality and customer service. Winner: Skylark, JD Wetherspoon, Heathrow T1.
Best Breakfast: Whether serving a croissant or a full English breakfast, BAA awards food that is fresh, served at the correct temperature and beautifully presented. Winner: Est Bar and Deli, Heathrow T4 landside.
Best Coffee Outlet: One of the most competitive awards, BAA looks for excellent coffee, a clean and comfortable environment and friendly staff, ensuring the customer enjoys the whole experience. Winner: Coffee Republic, Heathrow T4.
Barista of the Year: BAA looks for someone who is always friendly and helpful. Winner: Kamana Basnyat, AMT Heathrow T4 landside.
Employee of the Year: Someone who stands out from the crowd, a person who goes that extra mile every time to please customers and colleagues, and takes great pride in doing their job well every day. Individuals are nominated each month by their managers and through customer feedback. Winner: Judite Manhica, Est Bar, Stansted Satellite 1 airside.
Best Unseen Hero: A new award for 2006. A person who doesn’t have customer contact but plays a vital role in making an outlet “FAB”. Winner: Hamidi Ahmadulah, Café Rouge, Heathrow T1 landside.
Hottest Spot for Hospitality: A new award for 2006. Rewards the outlet that is best at making sure all customers receive a warm, friendly welcome and leave feeling refreshed and revived. Winner: Yo! Sushi, Gatwick North.
The importance of F&B to BAA
F&B activities are a key driver of BAA’s financial results. A single small airport coffee outlet can rack up sales of £1.5 million a year from more than 1,000 customers a day. The year ended 31 March 2006 turned in another sound overall retail performance for BAA. UK airports’ net retail income grew +4.8% to £616 million and net retail income per passenger rose +2.9% to £4.28 (£4.16).
The growth in net retail income – defined as revenues received directly from third party retail operators, concession fees paid to UK airports by World Duty Free and World Duty Free’s operating profit – outstripped a passenger increase of +2.0% in the UK airports to 144.6 million (2004/05:141.7 million).
The growth in retail and catering income was driven by a clear focus on improving service standards, BAA said at the time of the results announcement earlier this year. Another factor was the opening of the Heathrow T1 International Departure Lounge extension, which added a number of new shops, bars and restaurants.
As the 2005 annual results were unveiled, BAA Retail Director Stephen Nelson stressed the importance of commercial revenues to the operator’s seven UK airports: “This strong performance, especially in the second half of the year, was driven by an ever-increasing focus on serving the customer across the retail and food and beverage offer and developing the right choice of brands. As they say: ‘Retail is detail’, and our approach has helped us to withstand the kind of pressures that have hit the High Street.
“Knowing our customers is crucial and our research shows that customers are prepared to come to the airport earlier if offered retail ‘entertainment’, and also if there is quality and choice in catering. With these needs in mind, we have developed new approaches in store layout and invested in initiatives to reduce queuing – and yesterday we announced a deal with Gordon Ramsay to open a restaurant in T5. That’s just the latest example of the higher ambition I have for BAA Retail.”
Spotlight on some of BAA’s major caterers
About TRG
The Restaurant Group is a publicly-quoted company on the London Stock Exchange. It has been established for over 25 years and owns and operates more than 250 outlets in the UK. The TRG portfolio includes Garfunkel’s, Caffè Uno, Frankie & Benny’s, Blubeckers and Est Est Est among others. TRG Concessions, a division of The Restaurant Group, has 13 years of airport operation experience. It operates in several major UK airports, including London Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow and Manchester and is expanding rapidly into key shopping centres nationwide. Depending on client needs, TRG Concessions adapts its successful high street brands or develops bespoke concepts for different settings.
About SSP
SSP, now under the ownership of European private equity group EQT following its sale by Compass Group in June 2006, is the leading provider of food & beverage services in travel locations worldwide. It operates a broad portfolio of international and national brands as well as its own tailor-made concepts in 26 countries around the world. Travel retail outlets include Caffè Ritazza, Burger King, Starbucks, Delice de France, Upper Crust, Café Pronto, The real food company, Alloway Bar, Food Village, and Bar des Voyageurs. Around 20,000 employees serve 5 million customers everyday in over 2000 restaurants, bars, cafés, convenience stores and food courts across major airports, railway stations and shopping centres.
About Costa
Bruno & Sergio Costa set up their famous coffee roastery in Lambeth, London in 1971, supplying local caterers and Italian coffee shops with coffee, slow-roasted the Italian way. By 1978 the first Costa espresso bar opened in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London. To this day the firm still uses the same method of slow-roasting its coffee beans, serving the brothers’ blend of six Arabica beans to one Robusta in 500 coffee shops worldwide – including over 80 outlets in travel locations, such as airports, railway stations and motorway service stations. Food capture rates are high at its airport locations, according to Costa Managing Director John Derkach. The company focuses on quality control at every stage of the coffee-making process. Unlike any other coffee firm in the UK, Costa has its own roastery.
About JD Wetherspoon
Pub operator Wetherspoon was established in 1979 by 24-year-old law student Tim Martin. Spurred on by the lack of good-quality pubs in London, he decided to purchase the outlet he drank in, which he named Wetherspoons, after one of his teachers. Twenty years on, the range of beers and value for money, together with its all-day food and non-smoking areas form the cornerstones of the company’s pubs. Following its successful London Stock Exchange flotation in 1992, Wetherspoon began to expand rapidly. In 1994, it opened its first pub in the Midlands (Birmingham), followed by others in major cities, including Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester. There are now more than 640 Wetherspoon outlets throughout the UK – including 17 in travel locations. Wetherspoon is a veteran of the airport retail environment, according to the company’s John Hutson, having made its debut 15 years ago. Customer spend at its airport outlets is about £5.00, he told The Moodie Report. Each outlet can take £6,000 to £8,000 from over 1,000 customers per day.
About Starbucks
Founded in 1971, Starbucks roasts high-quality whole-bean coffees and sells them along with fresh, Italian-style espresso beverages, pastries and confections, and coffee-related accessories primarily through its company-operated retail stores. Starbucks has 11,225 (as at March 2006) coffee houses in North America, Europe, Middle East, Latin America and the Pacific Rim. Worldwide, approximately 40 million customers visit a Starbucks outlet each week. In the US, Starbucks trades in 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with 5,185 company-operated coffee houses and 2,765 licensed locations; internationally the firm is present in 36 countries with 1,310 company-operated coffee houses. Joint-venture and licensed locations: 1,965 worldwide. According to its latest data, Starbucks is opening about five new stores a day globally.
About Ponti’s
There are currently 18 Ponti’s counter-service restaurants in and around London. Locations include airports, shopping centres, Covent Garden, the West End and City of London. Ponti’s offers an extensive menu, good value for money and friendly staff – “true Italian hospitality”, according to the firm. The menu includes all-day breakfasts, freshly made sandwiches and salads, pizza, pasta dishes and a seasonally changing range of dishes. At time of writing, Ponti’s is opening an outlet in Heathrow Airport Terminal 3, adding to its growing roster of Heathrow Airport outlets.
About Caffè Nero
Caffè Nero Group plc was founded in 1997 and is currently the largest independent coffee retailer in the UK, with over 265 Caffè Nero stores from Brighton to Glasgow. Its aim is to provide a European-style coffee house experience offering premium espresso-based gourmet coffee, Italian foods and a relaxing atmosphere. The firm has won many accolades for the quality of its coffee and the overall Caffè Nero experience, including being rated as “Best espresso this side of Milan” (Tatler magazine), labelled “The traditional Italian Cafè” (Egon Ronay) and ranked the best UK Coffee House brand for the sixth year running by UK consumers (Allegra Report 2005, the UK’s definitive guide for the coffee industry).
About Caviar House & Prunier
Caviar House & Prunier, the world’s first retailer to produce its own caviar, operates Caviar House & Prunier boutiques worldwide, including airport stores and seafood bars (serving caviar, lobster, Champagne, etc) in London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Frankfurt and Vienna. The Swiss company’s latest outlet began trading in Copenhagen Airport in April 2006.
For details of the FAB Catering Awards, visit BAA’s website at www.baa.com/fab
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