FAB TALKS
Emirates Leisure Retail: A case study of hospitality and growth
Emirates Leisure Retail (ELR) & MMI Group Chief Executive Officer Tyrone Reid focused heavily on a key project for the Emirates Group company, at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport in Zanzibar.
There the two companies joined forces with a vision to create a “world-class, next-generation customer experience”, with the project competed in early 2023.
Reid told the audience that he started his career off in hospitality and that he still keeps the people in this sector “at the heart of everything we do”.
Tyrone Reid: Taking lessons from the world to Zanzibar
Local products move centre stage at the new Abeid Amani Karume International Airport T3
Celebrating local flavours, the jewel of the Indian Ocean
ELR owns and operates a wide portfolio of retail outlets, restaurants, cafés and bars in airports across the US, Middle East, Asia, Australasia and, more recently with the above-named project, East Africa.
A key focus of Reid’s talk and subsequent conversation with The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt was ELR’s work as the master concessionaire for the new Terminal 3 at Abeid Amani Karume International Airport.
Reid highlighted the strong Sense of Place that runs throughout both the retail and food & beverage concepts at the airport and underlined the importance of capturing local flavours for future projects.
“There is lots of digital activation bringing the experience of the island to the terminal. We have a marketplace selling artworks and locally handcrafted gifts. We have locally inspired F&B at the Spice Bar, where island flavours are entwined together through both bar and food.”
He said that even at the airport’s Grab and Go section they had been able to source locally produced coffee beans, which are roasted on-site.
How does your garden grow?
Asked by Davitt about EMI’s growth aspirations for the airport space, Reid noted upcoming projects at Changi Airport and in Australasia. But he cautioned that priorities for future business will be gauged by sensible bid levels.
“We don’t have to go after everything,” he said. “We are very focused on what we want to bid for, but we are not bidding at any price. There’s been a shift where these bids are really pushing the price up for everyone.
A moment to reflect on business successes and key learnings: Tyrone Reid with The Moodie Davitt President Dermot Davitt
How ELR created a “world-class, next-generation customer experience” in Zanzibar
“So we’re just taking a long-term view that we will grow in a natural, organic way, bidding for the right opportunities. We are looking for the deals where we can get long-term agreements, getting payback for investments over a longer period of time.”
Discussing the Minimum Annual Guarantee (MAG) concession model, he said: “The minimum guarantees in this day and age have become a real challenge and a real burden for everyone. Where you actually pay as you grow, you have an incentive to grow, which makes it a much more level playing field [in terms of competition with the industry’s bigger players].
“We are seeing challenges with rents increasing and MAGs increasing – this has a knock-on effect on price [to the consumer]. There is a global squeeze on traveller spend and there’s a link between rent and price.
“I’ve had conversations on many occasions with airport operators saying if you want high street prices we need high street rents, it’s as simple as that. I think a commitment to the right level of rent [set by the airport operators] can allow us to price to the consumer in the right way.”
FAB eZine
January 2024
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