INTERNATIONAL. Highly respected travel food & beverage sector figure Mark Angela is to work with research and intelligence firm tRetail Labs as an advisor.
Angela recently retired from a distinguished 14-year career at SSP, during which time he led key regional businesses including UK & Ireland, Eastern Europe and Middle East and Asia Pacific.
He will support tRetail Labs in its collaboration with the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Menus of Change initiative, which leans on tRetail Labs’ nrtureAI traveller experience intelligence platform. Angela aims to bring a concessionaire’s lens to the partnership, connecting insights with execution.
Angela will also serve as a founding member of the CIA x tRetail Labs Airport Food & Beverage Pathfinders Committee, joining early collaborators like Munich Airport in a coalition focused on shaping the future of airport dining. More on this initiative can be found here.
Angela brings extensive experience leading complex, multi-market F&B operations, said a tRetail labs statement. He will contribute across research, culinary strategy and operational execution, “helping translate behavioural insights into practical, scalable solutions for airport environments”.
His work supports the broader CIA x tRetail Labs’ vision and the Travel Food & Beverage Manifesto 2035, which calls for a redefinition of airport dining around wellbeing, sustainability, culinary quality and commercial performance.
As a founding member of the Airport F&B Pathfinders Committee, Angela will work alongside industry leaders to help develop a roadmap for how airport dining should evolve over the next decade, moving the sector from vision to execution.
Angela said: “Airport food & beverage is at a turning point for several reasons. Traveller expectations have moved far beyond convenience, and the industry needs to adapt and respond.
“Food is now more than ever central to the travel experience, and with retail under pressure, it has become a critical growth engine for non-aero revenue. The opportunity is to close the gap between demand and delivery by building more relevant, experience-led hospitality ecosystems.
“I am looking forward to working with tRetail Labs and the Culinary Institute of America and collaborating with fellow founding members of the Airport F&B Pathfinders Committee to help shape what airport food and beverage will look like in 2035.”
tRetail Labs Founder and CEO Sushanta Das said: “I am very happy to welcome Mark to tRetail Labs. I have had the pleasure of knowing him over the years and am glad that we now get to work closely together. Mark’s operator perspective will be critical as we build nrtureAI and work with CIA and APC members such as Munich Airport to define the next era of airport food & beverage.”
Culinary Institute of America Center for Food and Beverage Leadership Director of Health and Sustainability Programs and Research Abby Fammartino added: “We are delighted to welcome Mark as a founding member. His experience will help translate our principles into practical, scalable solutions for airport F&B environments.”
A call for broader industry collaboration
The 2035 Airport Food & Beverage Manifesto focus is intended to establish a credible foundation and roadmap for rethinking food across travel and visitor environments in the next decade.
This work brings together public health, culinary practice, behavioural insight and operational realities to develop shared definitions, frameworks and evidence that can inform planning, policy and design decisions over the coming decade.
You can learn more about CIA x tRetail Labs’ mission via this link.
Reach out to Sushanta Das at sushanta.das@tretaillabs.com, Prof Dr Thorsten Merkle at thorsten.merkle@tretaillabs.com or Abby Fammartino at abby.fammartino@culinary.edu to contribute your voice, support or experience to this initiative.
