Italy’s Autogrill ready to serve tables in Vietnam

The move showed the group’s ambitious growth strategy in emerging economies, Autogrill said.

"With this operation we are entering a country of high growth potential and strategic importance for further development, also in other travel channels in Vietnam and emerging markets in Asia," Autogrill CEO Gianmario Tondato Da Ruos said.
 
The joint venture – Autogrill VFS F&B Company – was set up with Vietnam Food and Beverage Services Company, a member Imex Pan Pacific (IPP), a huge food and beverage provider in Vietnam.

The new company will operate its food and beverage business consisting of 28 points of sale that IPP already operates at Danang Airport, Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport, and Phu Quoc Airport on Phu Quoc Island, a tourism hub popular among international visitors.

An additional six points of sale will be starting operations at Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport in the second half of the year.

Autogrill said under “an aggressive development roll out resulting in a further 48 stores over the next 18 months”, it would expand its operations to cover Vietnam’s top six airports. On reaching capacity planned by the end of 2014, the new business would generate estimated annual overall revenues of more than $20 million.

Autogrill said that after China and India, Vietnam expected to see the fastest growth in terms of passenger traffic, at an average of 8.6 per cent till 2020. To meet this rising demand Vietnam’s government would invest $20 billion to develop the airport sector over the next few years, added Autogrill. Around 90 per cent of the 37 million passengers moved by Vietnamese airports every year are concentrated in the country's top three airports in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang, where the new venture would start up its operations.