Lagardère Travel Retail appointed by Time Out Market to support its expansion into travel hub locations

Time Out Market has appointed Lagardère Travel Retail as its exclusive partner to support its expansion into airport locations.

As part of its ongoing global expansion and to unlock further opportunities, Time Out Market is looking into the development of a travel hub model suitable for airport locations or train stations, collaborating with Lagardère Travel Retail who have proven global expertise in delivering high standards of operational execution in this space. Lagardère Travel Retail operates over 5,000 stores in airports, railway stations and other concessions in 42 countries.

The bespoke travel hub model will feature key elements of a Time Out Market with its curation of the best of the city through a smaller selection of local chefs and restaurateurs as well as bars – with everything appropriately scaled to the footfall and speed of a busy travel hub. In addition, travellers in transit will also be inspired by the Time Out Media brand with screens displaying its inspirational content on the best things to do in cities around the world.

With this partnership, Lagardère Travel Retail and Time Out Market are combining their expertise.  Lagardère Travel Retail will be responsible for the operational management of this bespoke transit model in international airports working closely with the Time Out Market team which will be responsible for the curation of food vendors and provide its long-standing culinary and cultural market expertise.

Jay Coldren, Time Out Market Co-CEO (Development) said: “While our focus remains on larger scale food and cultural markets to bring the best of the city together under one roof, we are also interested in offering our unique experience and the very best of our brand on a smaller scale within travel hubs such as airports and train stations which are consistently busy with travellers – something that some of the world’s leading fashion, lifestyle and hospitality brands are already doing successfully in such locations.

We are excited to work with Lagardère Travel Retail – a leading operator in this space – to expand into travel hub locations in a way that is a great brand fit. We have established various proven models for our Markets and it is great to see how we can further evolve our concept to unlock new opportunities.”

Commenting on this announcement, Mélanie Guilldou, EVP Foodservice at Lagardère Travel Retail, added: “We are delighted to be the exclusive partner to support Time Out Market in operating a bespoke model for airport locations. We consider food halls as a strategic growth segment in our foodservice business line; it presents a tremendous growth opportunity in airports as it offers an exclusive food experience to travelers. We want to make the most of this partnership by leveraging our respective expertise, footprints and foodie passion to offer travelers an unforgettable experience: a true culinary journey within their trip.”