The operator of Budapest Airport (BUD) says that its Commercial Business Unit is considering wide-reaching invitations to tender in April following the Hungarian gateway achieving “its most successful retail year ever” in 2014.

 

This year, BUD’s main retail area, SkyCourt, will see a complete review as a number of key retail contracts reach maturity. Last month, Kam Jandu (below left), the airport’s Chief Commercial Officer and Fritz Janach, Managing Director, Heinemann Duty Free Hungary opened the country’s first-ever Victoria’s Secret shop, the first of what BUD claims will be a number of prominent new outlets expected in 2015.

The airport – owned by a consortium led by Germany’s AviAlliance (52.7%), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (20.2%), Malton Investment Pte Ltd. (22.1%) and KfW IPEX-Bank (5%) – had retail growth (including F&B) of almost +3% last year, helped by promotions some of which achieved improvements ranging from 150-300%.

In March 2014, BUD appointed Patrick Bohl as its new Head of Retail and Advertising and during the year the airport, in partnership with retailers and brands, staged “more promotions than ever before” mostly with Heinemann Duty Free the core DF&TR operator.

EXTRA RETAIL FOCUS

BUD – which processed 9.1m passengers in 2014 (+7%) – last month also included retail in its 8th annual awards ceremony. The event usually only honours airlines and other aviation associates but this year six special awards were also made to commercial partners (see below).

Heinemann’s Janach comments: “The past year’s record growth at the airport has obviously had a strong retail dividend. We are going all out to build upon that by consolidating our strongest offers, while adapting our concepts within our locations at Budapest, to increase ambience and desirability for our customers.”