Ljubljana, 5 July 2021. smartseller, the joint venture founded in 2020 between Gebr. Heinemann and casualfood, a company specialising in high-quality food-to-go outlets, opened its first integrative retail space combining Duty Free, Food & Beverage and Convenience at Ljubljana Airport.
The walk-through area is located in the airport’s new terminal and extends over a span of 1,000 square metres, of which the majority opened its doors on 1 July 2021. The remaining space is scheduled to open in April 2022. While “smartseller” is the name of the operating joint venture, the in-store presence has the customised brand name “all yours” at Ljubljana Airport.
Liquid retail experience tailored to passengers’ needs
“all yours is offering passengers a liquid retail journey, committed to melting barriers and creating a haven for travellers. The boundaries between Duty Free, Food & Beverage and Convenience shops have disappeared in favour of an open concept allowing passengers to move about as they wish. The concept evolves retail spaces from formerly rigid, category-centred assortments into four needs-oriented zones, creating smooth and intuitive transitions between themes, products and services,” explains Karl Niendorf, Managing Director of smartseller.
The company has established the pebble as the cornerstone of the fluid customer journey. Being the central element of the logo, the pebble extends from the shop fittings to every aspect of the communications. In the shop design, four pebbles serve as fixed points of orientation, around which everything flows: Your Location (local products), Your Studio (a place to linger), Your Spa (a well-being zone for relaxing and freshening up) and Your Bistro (Food & Beverage). Around the pebbles, the entire range of categories is presented with visual appeal and a local touch.
Economical and sustainable shop design
The furniture construction is linear and flexible, making the concept adaptable to future requirements. Everything can be quickly reconstructed or used in other ways, as the components are mainly fastened together by plug-in connectors and the structures remain simple. It is economical and contributes to the shop design’s sustainability.
The overall concept as well as the local design was created in cooperation with GRAFT architects. Their teams successfully designed unique and surprising touchpoints for travellers. Their needs and expectations formed the basis for GRAFT to thoroughly select shapes, materials and colours and to bring them together to create this design.
Added value for the airport
For its operations, smartseller took over from Heinemann Duty Free & Travel Value and casualfood’s operations in close cooperation with airport Operator Fraport Slovenija.
“The fresh and innovative concept of the Duty Free area, where retail and F&B offer are intertwined, is one of the highlights of the new terminal at Ljubljana Airport. We believe that the perfectly designed shop and product offer, combined with an attractive food corner will persuade even the most demanding travellers”, describes a convinced Babett Stapel, Chief Commercial, Finance and Administrative Officer at Fraport Slovenija, and adds: “especially in these times both partners appreciated the high level of commitment and mutual trust to commercial innovation in airport travel.”
Roll-out across Europe
Besides Ljubljana, smartseller is already active with other integrated solutions that can already be experienced on a smaller scale at regional airports in Münster/Osnabrück and Leipzig in Germany. Here too, smartseller is operating integrative Duty Free, Food & Beverage and Convenience retail spaces. However, they are not marketed under an umbrella customer-facing brand as in Ljubljana. With the successful launch at the Slovenian capital’s airport, smartseller is getting ready to roll the concept out across Europe.
“The airport of the future must be understood as a holistic marketplace in terms of its synergies and not in terms of its stand-alone offers. We are streamlining all our offers towards this aim,” Karl Niendorf concludes.
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About smartseller
smartseller, a joint venture founded in 2020 between Gebr. Heinemann and travel catering specialist casualfood, offers small and medium-sized regional airports added value by combining Travel Retail with Food & Beverage and Convenience. This comprehensive approach provides expertise in all areas and services from a single source, alongside a modern experience for passengers that is highly flexible and geared to their needs. With smartseller, the airport operator has a sole contractual partner, ensuring economic efficiency and sustainable operating. In addition, the company brings an integrated shop design, IT landscape, cash register and merchandise management system to the airport, combining the full-service approach with a rethink of airport retail.
About casualfood GmbH
casualfood develops and operates innovative food concepts for airports and stations under its slogan, “The taste of travelling”. Its 15 different catering and convenience store concepts serve a wide-ranging portfolio, from high-quality fast food to an Italo-American deli concept. The company’s proprietary concepts (QUICKER’s, Superfood, basta!, MONDO, MONDO Bianco, Hermann’s, Kilkenny, GOODMAN & FILIPPO, Brezel Lovers and Beans & Barley), the new concepts east side berlin, Berlin Pub and Deli Berlin, and the Kamps and ServiceStore DB brands which are run as franchises are a common sight at transport hubs. Thanks to its successful combination of an attractive product range and a clear brand profile, the owner-run firm has become a leading travel catering company.
