Apr 9, 2013

Major Investments in Food & Beverage Concepts at Vietnamese Airports

HMSHost and Vietnam Food and Beverage Services Company sign joint venture

Ho Chi Minh, 9 April 2013 – HMSHost, a world leader in travel dining, has signed a joint venture with Vietnam Food and Beverage Services Company, part of Imex Pan Pacific Group, Vietnam’s major food and beverage provider. The new joint venture, Autogrill VFS F&B Company Services, will be the major player in the Vietnamese airports. The new company will operate over 80 points of sale at different Vietnam airports with estimated annual overall revenue of more than 20 million USD on reaching capacity planned by the end of 2014.

“We are very excited about bringing HMSHost, the world’s leading travel related F&B operator, to our country,” says IPP Group President Le Hong ThuyTien. “The collaboration will not only involve major investments and new employment, but more importantly: HMSHost will also bring its international expertise and knowledge. Combined with our expertise of the local market, we can together further improve the quality of Vietnamese airport restaurants.”

F&B concepts that meet the needs of travellers
Autogrill VFS F&B Company currently operates the 28 points of sale at Ho Chi Minh, Phu Quoc and Da Nang airports. Concepts include Western brands such as hamburger specialist Burger King, the American restaurant chain Domino’s Pizza and Popeye’s Chicken, which shows off its New Orleans heritage with authentic spicy chicken. In addition, the group operates Asian restaurants such as the casual Asian restaurants Big Bowl, Next Noodles as well as Kaisha Sushi that offers a wide variety of Japanese noodles and sushi. An additional six new food & beverage concepts will be opened at Hanoi airport in the second half of the year. An aggressive development roll-out will result in a further 48 outlets across all airports in Vietnam over the next eighteen months. “We have extensive experience in the development of new concepts that meet the needs of all kinds of travellers”, says HMSHost International CEO Walter Seib. “Trends in food and beverages depend on where in the world you are. In Vietnam for instance, we will develop concepts that work with local products and ingredients that embraces the great local food heritage of Vietnam. Overall, there will be a good balance between international, regional and local brands at every airport. This is a major step for our company into one of the emerging markets in Asia that we have been targeting.”

Vietnamese airports with international standards
After China and India, Vietnam is the country expected to see the fastest growth in terms of passenger traffic (at an average of 8.6% a year until 2020). To meet this rising demand its government will invest around $20 billion to further develop the airport sector over the next few years. The government sets out to upgrade its airports to international standards. The joint venture will support this ambition. Around 90% of the 37 million passengers moved by Vietnamese airports every year is concentrated in the country’s top three airports (Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and Da Nang). Located on the south coast – near Vietnam’s biggest urban area – Ho Chi Minh Airport is the country’s busiest airport with around 16 million passengers in 2011. Hanoi – the capital’s airport and the most important in the north – is the second busiest with over 9 million transits. Da Nang – in the central zone where the country’s main industries are situated – is the third largest airport with around 3 million passengers.