From Vienna to the world

Aïda takes its name from an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, a favourite of founder Josef Prousek, who was born in 1883. In 1913, with his wife Rosa, he bought and ran a pastry shop in Vienna called Bonsaing & Söhne. In 1921, production was expanded and the once small confectionery store became the Chocolaterie & Grosskonditorei AÏDA.

There is a fascinating story to tell and a rich history to draw from, as Aïda seeks a bright, global future. Executive Director Dominik Prousek is a fourth generation member of the family business that runs Aïda, and he sees airports and railway stations as the ideal vehicle to grow his company’s international ambitions.

“We have quickly found out that in the travel retail space you have such a variety of different cultures and people travelling through the airport,” he says. “I believe there is something for everyone in the Aïda café, as evidenced by the amazing financial results we have achieved at Vienna Airport to date. Our unique Austrian coffee and pastry shop experience is attracting the custom of every passing nationality.

“Rival airport brands like Costa and Starbucks have coffee and small snacks but we offer a 24-hour variety for what you can eat. You can come for breakfast, a snack, lunch, teatime, dinner; you can have a drink; you can come for an ice cream; we really cover the whole spectrum that an airport traveller needs – and very few stores do that.”

“Our specialities – such as strudels, topfengolatsche [a popular Austrian sweet snack] and Sacher cake [a type of chocolate cake] – give an authentic taste of the original Viennese café-konditorei experience and we know, from our overseas market testing, that the taste travels well and is popular among the people of many cultures.”

As well as exporting products all over the world via its online shop, Aïda has already successfully tested its offering with pop-up stores across the globe over the past decade. These have been placed in China, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Saudi Arabia, Croatia and Kazakhstan for durations of one to three years. Many of the products sold in these locations have been factory-frozen in Vienna, and last between six months and one year. They are then either shipped or flown to their destination, ensuring a consistency of taste at cafés in the various markets, however distant. The method has been proven in the domestic market, Prousek notes.

“We tried to choose what we considered to be some of the hardest markets to enter and we have gained a lot of important knowledge,” he says of the overseas Aïda café experiments. “For example, in certain markets we have to make adjustments for different taste buds. In China, we found that they prefer 50% less sugar in sweet products, whereas in Saudi Arabia the taste is for a higher than standard sugar content.

Food aside, there have been other lessons learned from these overseas forays. The many logistical issues around exporting Aïda products, related customs paperwork and regulations, and the day-to-day mechanics of operating stores have been tried and tested. “The countries we have entered have all had their own specific issues to address,” says Prousek.

International expansion has been on the agenda for Prousek since he was just 13 years old, when he told his father he wanted Aïda to become a worldwide brand. His passion remains as strong as ever, despite the inherent risks.

“I want as many people as possible to experience the taste of our coffee specialities and my family’s original recipes, and to achieve that we have to look beyond our home market. I’m 33 now and it feels like the right time to do it – making this big push for overseas expansion has been ten years in the making. Austria is famous for three things: our culture, our music and our desserts and pastries, and we are at the forefront of the latter. There is no reason why we can’t bring our experience to new markets.”

Indeed, Prousek recognises customer experience and the quality of food & beverage as vital factors in differentiating Aïda. “It’s hard to differentiate between the big worldwide coffee shop chains – you go there, you get your cardboard cup of coffee, and you leave. What I want to offer is what Austrians have had for centuries, the Viennese experience of sitting in a coffee shop, with great food and service, and I think the whole world would enjoy this.”

For now though, Prousek has his eyes on the bigger picture of potential international growth for Aïda and the commencement of the 2020 World Expo event in Dubai. “It is a shame that no Viennese café house concept has yet made it out there internationally, but we have put the time and resources into readying ourselves to fill that gap,” he concludes. “Exporting the taste of Aïda to the world is my dream and that’s what drives me every day.”