Nestlé is rolling out its coffee portfolio into travel retail with Dubai, Madrid, Barcelona, Panama, Dubai, Doha and Singapore among the key airport locations now selling coffee products to travellers, with more in the pipeline.

All of Nestlé’s major airport coffee launches to date have been supported by a variety of high-profile traditional and digital media initiatives designed to maximise awareness and visibility.

“We know that there is a huge amount of untapped potential for coffee in the travel retail channel,” said Nestlé International Travel Retail (NITR) General Manager Stewart Dryburgh, as he told TRBusiness in a recent interview.

“The findings of the m1nd-set research study we commissioned last year revealed that 84% of travellers said they were likely to buy coffee in travel retail, for consumption during their trip, or for family/self-gifting purposes.

“Importantly, 69% of travellers questioned said they preferred global brands to local brands – a hugely encouraging result for Nescafé, the world’s leading coffee brand.”

To support the launch of the Nescafé Gold Roastery Collection in Dubai Duty Free, Nestlé has created a combined out-of-home (OOH) and digital media campaign, which is running for two months until the end of December.

The OOH elements cover the full network of boutiques at Dubai International Airport, while the digital campaign aims to bolster pre-trip awareness and drive in-trip conversions.

The collection is initially available in Terminals 1 and 3 and is also listed at dubaidutyfree.com.

A similar approach has been applied to Qatar Duty Free, digital media campaigns to support pre-trip awareness and in-trip conversions.

At Singapore Changi, the focus has been on Nestlé Roastery gondolas, installed in T2 Central and T4 Central.

“The latest data from Generation confirms that food is leading the post-Covid recovery in travel retail,” said Dryburgh.

“Sales for this category grew by an impressive +252.5% in first-half 2022 versus the same period in 2021.

“This bodes well for Nestlé’s food ambitions in general, and for the untapped coffee segment in particular.”

NITR’s coffee roll-out is in line with the company’s ambition to build food into the number one most purchased category in the channel, as previously reported.