FRANCE/UK. Lagardère Travel Retail and EL&N have entered into a partnership through which the retailer becomes the exclusive franchisee of the London-based café and lifestyle brand in travel locations.
The travel retailer said the collaboration is an important milestone towards the ambition of developing its foodservice footprint in Europe.
EL&N, founded in London in 2017 by Alexandra Miller, has become a global brand of cafés which has been developed to become a well-known ‘instagrammable’ destination with flower walls, pink interiors, felted armchairs and candy pink neon lights.
In this environment of memorable decor, customers can enjoy a selection of drinks – including pink lattes – and culinary creations. The wide range of products includes high quality coffees, a large choice of pastries, cold drinks and healthy dishes.
The EL&N café brand is adaptable to different formats, from flagship to kiosks, and offers both table or takeaway service depending on locations.
Capitalising on its strong brand image, EL&N has also developed a range of retail products, including masks, steel water bottles, flasks and notebooks.
The brand has experienced rapid international growth since it opened its first location in Park Lane, London, and later its first travel retail café in the UK at Heathrow Airport. The brand’s global footprint now also spans France, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, China and Scandinavia.
In forming the new partnership, Lagardère Travel Retail said EL&N has “recognised its expertise of embodying F&B brands’ DNA”. The company pledged to deliver high standards of operational execution for EL&N, support the brand’s travel retail development in current locations and explore opportunities to expand to new markets.
Lagardère Travel Retail EVP Foodservice Mélanie Guilldou said: “We are very proud to enter this partnership with EL&N and to build on our shared values and very entrepreneurial business mindsets to bring EL&N’s unique and experiential concept to travellers.
“EL&N is one of the most recognisable, iconic brands in today’s F&B environment and we very much look forward to participating in the company’s success story and ambitions for international travel retail development.
“The addition of EL&N to our portfolio is of great value in the travel retail environment, where travellers are constantly looking for concepts and offers that are both unique and truly differentiating. This opens up a tremendous opportunity to appeal to new profiles of consumers – young, tech savvy, fashionable women.”
Alexandra Miller said: “We are incredibly excited to be embarking on this brand new journey with the team at Lagardère Travel Retail. Over the past five years, we have successfully solidified our position within the F&B landscape as innovative market leaders, but now feels like the perfect timing for us to bring our offering to new territories within the travel retail environment.
“This is the beginning of a dream partnership with Lagardère and we look forward to working together with the team to tap into a new demographic for EL&N.”
Lagardère Travel Retail has been strategically investing into developing the network and expertise of its foodservice business line. This has been underlined by the acquisitions of HWH in the Middle East and Marché International in Europe and Singapore.
In 2019, Lagardère Travel Retail’s foodservice business line achieved over €1 billion in sales, doubling its turnover over the course of just three years. 
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