SSP and Caviar House & Prunier sign exclusive deal

Emily Pacey

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The companies’ partnership could grow Caviar House & Prunier’s travel portfolio by 500% over the next five years

Travel catering firm SSP and Caviar House & Prunier have signed a 20-year deal granting SSP the exclusive right to operate Caviar House & Prunier seafood bars in travel-retail locations worldwide. The parties estimate the deal could lead to the roll-out of up to 50 seafood bars over the next five years.

The deal – which was conceived during a coffee break at the ACI Europe Trading conference in Monaco in February – will allow Caviar House & Prunier to harness SSP’s broad contract base at airports and railway stations to expand from its current airport business in the UK, Switzerland, Austria and Scandinavia. The company’s seafood bars have achieved double-digit growth annually since the 1980s, according to president and CEO Peter Rebeiz, and will become a key brand in SSP’s portfolio.

SSP CEO Andrew Lynch said the company is bidding for three major contracts in Europe and Asia, where Caviar House & Prunier seafood bars would be set up if it is successful. He described the deal as a perfect partnership. “We have a very exciting roll-out programme planned,” he said. “Clearly some of the sites where we already operate will be perfect for introducing Caviar House & Prunier, but the really exciting opportunity lies in new sites. We have developed a model that starts with the location and analyses the size, passenger traffic, demographics, when they use the terminal, and ultimately builds a matrix of what the passenger is looking for. That enables us to go to the airport and say ‘this is what your passenger wants’. It’s grounded in a lot of science.”

Rebeiz said: “When we made a proposal in the past the airport would always have to check with their overall catering concessionaire. This deal solves that problem for us. The quality of the people, know-how and dedication of SSP even to brands not built by the company is staggering. We have franchises downtown and we don’t see that level of motivation.”

The deal also gives SSP rights to first refusal on any Caviar House & Prunier retail outlets at travel locations worldwide. At London Heathrow terminal four Caviar House & Prunier achieved sales of nearly £2.5m last year, with about 75% coming from its seafood bar and the remainder from its retail outlet.

For an in-depth profile on both companies and more analysis on the deal, see DFNI June 15, out next week.