BUY AND FLY

Joe Bates rounds-up some of the latest retail/F&B news, views and reviews from across the busy Asia-Pacific region.

Cairns Airport has awarded global restaurateur HMSHost and Australian hospitality powerhouse, Red Rock Australia, concessions to operate a total of 13 new food and beverage outlets when the expansion of Terminal 2 (T2) is completed in 2020.

The 13 outlets are in addition to the new Hudson’s Café & Bar successfully opened in the T2 check-in hall in late 2018. All seven current food and beverage outlets will be replaced and a further six will be added as part of the terminal expansion.

The new outlets include an exciting mix of well-known international brands, the best of Australian domestic brands, proprietary concepts and local Cairns high-street concepts.

HMSHost has secured eight concessions ranging from burger joint Hungry Jacks to Portuguese chicken outlet Oporto; the Vietnamese street food inspired Roll’d; and the “family favourite” schnitzel concept, Schnitz.

While Red Rock’s five concessions include The Pier Bar; The Shack and Rattle m Hum, which is an airport version of the laid-back pub from the Cairns Esplanade.

The new F&B outlets will be delivered progressively during the T2 expansion project with the first new outlets – Hungry Jacks and Oporto – expected to be in place by mid-2019 and the two pub/casual dining outlets Rattle n Hum and The Pier Bar by the third quarter of 2019.

“We set out to provide a diverse food and beverage line up at Cairns Airport that caters to the many customer segments we have going through the airport,” says CEO, Norris Carter.

“We have high numbers of Asian and other international tourists, visitors from interstate and, of course, Cairns and greater Queensland locals. We wanted to give all of these groups the type of food they expect, and had been asking for, in our extensive consumer research. We believe there will now be something for everyone.”

Elsewhere in Australia, Sydney Airport, well known for its retail innovation, has welcomed two new speciality stores to its shopping portfolio as part of the revamp of Terminal 2 Pier B – LEGO and Kaboom.

Concessionaire, Lagardère Travel Retail, says that the former is the first LEGO store to open in the travel retail market in the Pacific region.

The 50sqm LEGO store (pictured above) offers one of the world’s most iconic and successful brands to passengers travelling through T2, the busiest domestic passenger terminal in the Pacific region.

“Being the first to bring such an iconic brand to travel retail is an exciting development for Lagardère Travel Retail and its sure to bring much excitement to the many passengers travelling through Sydney T2”, says Przemek Lesniak, CEO of Lagardère Travel Retail in the Pacific region.

Kaboom, directly adjacent to the LEGO store, is Lagardère Travel Retail’s well known and loved toys concept. First opened at in Sydney T2 in 2004, Kaboom has now relocated to a new and larger 65sqm home within the Pier B retail precinct.

Meanwhile, in Jordan, Dufry, in partnership with Airport International Group, has opened an Arrivals duty-free store at Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA).

Covering 700sqm, the new outlet offers over 5,000 items across the core categories of food, beverages, beauty, accessories and jewellery, among others.

Its design incorporates large format digital screens, which Dufry believes will give customers a more engaging and immersive in-store experience.

Andrea Belardini, Dufry’s divisional CEO for Eastern Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia, commented: “The completion of our Arrivals store marks a first step in the complete redevelopment of our retail execution here in Amman.

“Work on our Departures store is now well underway and we will be introducing our New Generation Store concept to deliver a world-class airport shopping experience to our customers.”

AIG CEO, Kjeld Binger, stated: “We are glad to partner with Dufry to expand our duty-free area at Queen Alia International Airport. Such collaborations emphasise our commitment to catering to the varied needs of passengers flying through the airport and providing them with an enjoyable travel experience, ultimately further strengthening QAIA’s standing as the Kingdom’s prime gateway to the world.”

The store’s design celebrates the natural beauty and heritage of Jordan, according to The Design Solution, which provided support for the project.

It notes that the white entrance to the store is shaped like the opening of a Bedouin tent while an elegant, dune-shaped ridge canopy over it is designed to reflect the “mesmerising, flowing patterns of Jordan’s wind-shaped sand dunes and bring to mind the beauty of the country’s iconic desert locations, such as Wadi Rum”.

Kevin Patience, design director at The Design Solution, says: “The design was principally inspired by the beautiful, shifting natural forms of Jordan’s desert dunes, interwoven with contemporary expressions of classic Arabic geometric patterns, blending the natural beauty and the cultural heritage of the region.”