ITALY/SWITZERLAND. Speaking exclusively to The Moodie Davitt Report, Autogrill Group CEO Gianmario Tondato Da Ruos says that the new combined travel retail to food & beverage powerhouse of Autogrill and Dufry will be even stronger than the “simple sum of the two companies”.
As reported, Tondato will be appointed Executive Chairman of all the North American activities of the new Group, which include HMSHost’s powerful F&B operation and Dufry’s retail and F&B activities, including Hudson.
Commenting on the strategic agreement announced early this morning (CET) by Edizione S.p.A and Dufry AG for the creation of a leading global player in travel-related F&B and retail, Tondato told The Moodie Davitt Report: “The agreement just signed has an important strategic and industrial value for Autogrill.
“The creation of a leading player with global reach in diverse services for travellers represents a great opportunity to create value in the medium and long term. This is both thanks to a better risk profile in a very complex global scenario and to an increased coverage of the customer experience, including in terms of the ability to deliver product and service innovation.
“Autogrill and Dufry have complementary businesses and will be a great fit in terms of culture, values and management styles. I am sure that the integration will lead to the birth of a new group, even better than the simple sum of the two companies. I am proud of the path Autogrill has made in recent years and of the courage and determination shown in pursuing such an ambitious and visionary transaction.”
Tondato added: “After almost 20 years as CEO of the Autogrill Group, I am happy with the choice to appoint Xavier Rossinyol as future CEO of the new group, to whom I am linked by friendship and professional respect.
“I followed his path at the helm of multinationals and I believe that in the industry he is the person at the right time to lead the creation of this new group.
“With this spirit, as Executive Chairman of North American activities, I will share my experience to help the successful integration of the activities in a geographic area of strategic importance for the new group.”
“The end of an era, the start of a new journey”
Speaking on an investors’ call later on Monday, Tondato again hailed the agreement, saying the two companies are “complementary in terms of service, product, execution and geography”.
He reflected on Autogrill’s two-decade rise from an Italian motorway players to a diversified global service provider, calling today “the end of an era and the start of a new journey”.
Reflecting on what he termed “an important value creation opportunity”, he said the new company would “write the next chapter in the book of the travel concessions industry”.
He added: “Both groups will benefit from each other’s competitive advantages across the three segments of the travel concessions industry, food & beverage, convenience and retail. It is a combination between two champions in the space.
“We each have a sound understanding of each other’s businesses, which will help create common solutions and outstanding offerings for current and upcoming needs. What we will do from here is make a new travel concession group even more compelling and with the ability to foster healthy and sustainable growth.”
He said that both companies had to turn themselves around during the pandemic. Now, he added, “we clearly see the huge potential to capture all opportunities that the traffic recovery will offer us, by being together instead of running alone.
“Combining forces will give us a much stronger innovation capability, expertise, cross-fertilisation potential and a much broader global reach.
“Combining forces will enable us to provide more appropriate solutions for our customers. We believe this combination will strengthen our consumer profile, and cover a wider range of products and concepts from F&B, convenience and retail all across the traveller journey.
“We are also convinced that the combination will contribute to transporting a casual buyer into a more frequent customer by multiplying the interaction with the group in different contexts and for a seamless travel experience. This a great opportunity to create value both short term and long term.
“By coming together, the strength of one company will help us address the challenges of the other and create significant upside, such as having a more balanced and global footprint covering different channels. At the same time, we will optimise our platforms while being efficient and agile in the way we invest, develop and deploy new solutions for our customers.”
Footnote: The Dufry and Autogrill deal will undoubtedly feature prominently in conversations at the forthcoming Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Conference 2022, which is taking place virtually on 12-13 September, before a full physical return in 2023.
The event will once again feature the FAB Superstars Awards.
This second virtual edition of the awards will again shine the spotlight on the thousands of front-of-house and behind the scenes heroes and heroines who have helped keep the food & beverage community within our industry going throughout the challenges of the last year.
In addition, this year’s awards include an important new category, the FAB ESG Awards,which have been introduced to celebrate, recognise and reward those people and initiatives that have made a positive impact in the areas of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).
The FAB ESG & Superstars Awards will be presented on Tuesday 13 September to conclude the Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Conference 2022.
They will recognise and reward the achievements of travel retail employees across airport, airline, downtown store and cruise sectors, and celebrate the strength of the human spirit, resourcefulness and ingenuity in our industry.
The Moodie Davitt Report is the only international business intelligence service and industry media to cover all airport or other travel-related consumer services, revenue-generating and otherwise.
We embrace all commercial revenues, including food & beverage, duty free and other retail, property, passenger lounges, hotels, car parking, hospital and other medical facilities, advertising and others.
