It’s a busy time for Smartseller, the Gebr. Heinemann and Casualfood joint venture which combines retail, F&B and convenience assortments at small and medium-sized airports. TRBusiness spoke recently to Karl Niendorf, Managing Director, about the launch of two new concepts this year and what it means for the growing business.

For the uninitiated, Smartseller was founded in 2020 as a joint venture between Gebr. Heinemann, the Hamburg-headquartered travel retailer, and Casualfood, which develops and operates food concepts such as snack carts, convenience units and fast casual bars and restaurants for the transport catering industry under its ‘The Taste of Travelling’ slogan.

Smartseller opened its first integrated duty free, F&B and convenience space at Ljubljana Airport in Slovenia in 2021 under the ‘All Yours’ brand fascia, taking over the Heinemann Duty Free & Travel Value and Casualfood operations in close partnership with operator Fraport Slovenija.

The approach encourages travellers to move seamlessly between four so-called ‘needs-oriented zones’ to discover products and services in an open environment, a departure from the more formulaic category-led experience.

Extension of ‘All Yours’

While Smartseller was already running integrated solutions at smaller scale at regional airports at the time in Germany at Münster Osnabrück and Leipzig, these were not being marketed under the customer facing ‘All Yours’ branding, as in Ljubljana.

Fast forward to May 2023 and Smartseller extended the ‘All Yours’ branding to a redesigned and combined 600sq m duty free, food service and convenience space situated post-security at Münster Osnabrück Airport.

A matter of months later in October and passengers at Albrecht Dürer Airport Nürnberg in Nuremberg were treated to the same concept, this time over an expanded area of 1,200sq m. This plays on the strong regional connection to Nuremberg and the region of Franconia.

“From the outset, our goal has been to serve as the ‘all-around service provider’ for small and medium-sized airports,” Karl Niendorf, Managing Director, Smartseller told TRBusiness.

Niendorf says he is encouraged by the company’s performance to date in 2024, which has heralded two new exciting developments: The unveiling of the ‘Little’ concept and rebranding of the ‘All Yours’ fascia to ‘You Are Here’.

Beginning with the ‘Little’ retail concept, this has been implemented for the first time at Ljubljana Airport. The aptly named ‘Little Slovenia’ plays on Smartseller’s familiar approach of combining duty free, F&B, convenience and books and press areas but applying it to smaller footprints of 50-200sq m. According to Smartseller, this allows airports to quickly and efficiently integrate the concept within existing terminal infrastructure.

Local touches are allowed to flourish and the hybrid design approach is positioned to appeal to a cross-section of passengers – from business, leisure and occasional travellers, to families.

At Ljubljana, ‘Little Slovenia’ is situated in the waiting lounge of the non-Schengen area and presents F&B services, a duty free assortment and local souvenirs. Meanwhile, the bar provides a spacious seating area for travellers to relax prior to boarding.

The ‘Little’ concept responds to the at-gate opportunity to tap spending from passengers. But it has wider potential, learns TRBusiness.

“The ‘Little’ concept is ideal for secondary positions within our airports due to its limited size – therefore, remote gate areas, non-Schengen sections and landside locations are our focus,” added Niendorf. “However, it also allows us to expand our airport portfolio at the entry level where a ‘You Are Here’ shop would be too large and costly.”

View the full article in the TRBusiness August/September edition by clicking here…