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Great Wraps: HBF aimed to offer a broad mix of F&B options to passengers |
USA. Hojeij Branded Foods (HBF) this week officially opened a series of new concepts in the new Concourse A food court at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The units include Varasano’s (which includes a piano bar), Chick-fil-A, Great Wraps and Boardwalk Burgers (operated by an minority ACDBE partner). These are in addition to the P.F. Chang’s restaurant also opened this week, as previously reported. The Moodie Report’s North America Bureau Chief Dr. Patricia Ryan has been in Atlanta this week for the Concourse A openings.
This completes the opening of all but three HBF permanent concessions at Atlanta Airport’s Concourse A. HBF took over operations there in May 2012 through a prime agreement awarded in a previous RFP. It already operates an Atlanta Hawks Bar & Grill, Freshens, Boar’s Head Deli, Piece of Cake, Qdoba, LowCountry by G. Garvin, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Caribou Coffee, Goldberg’s Deli, McDonald’s and Pinkberry.
Three additional units will open in the first, second and third quarters of 2014. HBF also operates various kiosks and locations in Concourse E at Atlanta.
HBF Business Development Executive Wassim Hojeij explained to The Moodie Report how the concepts were selected, noting that Concourse A is “the most important concourse in the country with 12 million enplaned passengers annually”. Hojeij said that HBF reviewed the flow of passengers throughout the entire concourse, and developed each concept to ensure passengers had a variety of local, regional and well-known national brands.
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Chick-fil-A (above) and Boardwalk: Extending the HBF network at a key airport |
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Atlanta Airport Deputy General Manager Miguel Southwell officiated at the ribbon-cutting on behalf of General Manager Louis Miller. Southwell told The Moodie Report that “one of the exciting things about the concession programme is the mix of food & beverage offerings with local, regional, national chains that are headquartered in Atlanta and international brands as well”.
Southwell said that Atlanta stood out for its well-balanced mix offering local food such as Paschals, Low Country and Varsity Grill as well as celebrated branded concepts such as TGIF, Carrabbas Grill, Longhorns, Einstein and Starbucks.
Within a year, the food & beverage programme in Concourse A will be complete according to Southwell. Concourse E concessions will be expiring in 2015, so Atlanta Airport will soon issue Requests for Proposals for several packages, offering master concessions opportunities such as food courts and also small packages of two to four locations.
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Varasano’s restaurant also features a novel piano bar |
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Atlanta Airport’s Concession Director Paul Brown noted that the concession programme has dramatically changed over the past few years with a +40% increase in total concession space (and 152 units today).
Brown said that the goal is “to deliver the best passenger service and value to the customer with a variety of different packages which creates a dynamic opportunity for concessionaires to come up with their best and brightest concepts.”
We’ll bring you further details on the development of the Atlanta Airport concessions programme soon.
