Carestel Renews Its Food & Beverage Concession in Brussels Airport

Autogrill Group, through its Belgian subsidiary Carestel Group, has renewed the majority of its food and beverage concession in Brussels Airport. The contract will run for 12 years from February 2007. The renewal involves not only the food and beverage points of sale and vending machines inside the airport but also management of the waiting lounges.

In 2006, the whole business of Carestel in Brussels Airport produced sales of over €33m, which are expected to grow as the new initiatives are developed from here to 2018.

Renovation and upgrading of the existing points of sales already begun will proceed for another two years. This year, a new food court (Brussels Plaza), a Grab&Fly outlet and a new beer concept will gradually open in the B concourse (non-schengen destinations).

Some of the remaining food and beverage operations at landside can be put out to tender by the airport authority (The Brussels Airport Company) at some time in the future.

Jean-Paul Van Avermaet, managing director for Autogrill Belux, says “We are very happy with this new contract, which is the result of our continued investment during the past two years in continuous improvement of the quality of our products and services, as well as the renovation of outlets. It sets the basis for continuing in the same direction in the coming years, in line with the airports philosophy of Efficient, European & Welcoming.”

Brussels Airport CEO, Wilfried Van Assche, is very pleased with this renewed partnership with the Carestel Group. "The offer of bars and restaurants has a major impact on the image of an airport. Our strategy aims at developing a segmented service that combines an premium offer for the business passenger with a broad and competitively priced offer for the price sensitive traveler. Combining these challenges requires both experience and vision. For many years now Carestel has shown enough creativity and initiative to convince us that they are a strong partner to help us achieve this challenge. In the last few years, Brussels Airport has constantly been rated one of the very best airports in Europe by passengers. The daily efforts of Carestel certainly contribute to that. The new contract also allows Brussels Airport to attract new partners to fill in part of the airport food and beverage offer. In such event, of course we wouldn’t exclude the Carestel Group from any tenders we would organize to that end." AUTOGRILL