Top Tips for Running Successful Airport Restaurants | Proven Strategies from The Restaurant Group

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Food Service Growth Show!
In this episode, we are thrilled to dive into the "Top Tips for Running Successful Airport Restaurants." 

Get ready for an insightful and comprehensive discussion, as we have a very special guest joining us today. Dean wilson Hartles, the esteemed Director of Food & Drink at The Restaurant Group, brings his wealth of knowledge and decades of experience to the table. Dean has won multiple awards for his exceptional contributions to the foodservice industry, and today, he's here to reveal everything he has learned over his remarkable four-decade career.

The Restaurant Group is a leading operator of restaurants and pubs in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio encompassing hundreds of locations. The Group's primary brands are Wagamama and Barburrito. Additionally, it operates a collection of pub restaurants and a concessions business primarily situated in UK airports.

Joining Dean is our very own Carl Jacobs, the CEO of Apicbase. Together, Carl and Dean will delve into a comprehensive discussion about everything you need to know to thrive in the restaurant space, particularly within the unique environment of airport dining.

Together, they will discuss...
✅ Keeping Up with Trends Without Menu Overload
✅ How ESG Initiatives Are Reshaping Airport Dining Trends
✅ How the Pandemic Impacted Foodservice at Airports 
✅ The Restaurant Industry Now and Then: Massive Changes
✅ Restaurant Industry Adapts to Consumer Price Sensitivity
✅ How to Stand Out in a Competitive Foodservice Market

The restaurant industry is rapidly changing. For F&B businesses, staying ahead of trends is crucial, especially in the airport restaurant scene where the customer base is incredibly diverse. 

Dean shares his strategies for keeping menus fresh and exciting without overwhelming customers with too many options. They will discuss the importance of understanding your audience and curating a menu that caters to their preferences while maintaining operational efficiency.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives are becoming increasingly important in the foodservice industry. So, Dean discusses how these initiatives are transforming airport dining experiences and why sustainability and ethical practices are no longer just trends but necessities.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the foodservice industry, and airport restaurants were no exception. Dean will reflect on how the pandemic reshaped the landscape of airport dining, from operational changes to shifts in consumer behavior. We'll discuss the lessons learned and the strategies that helped businesses survive and thrive during these turbulent times.

The restaurant industry has undergone significant transformations over the years. Dean, with his vast experience, provides a unique per

Learn how our restaurant management solutions help your restaurant business keep costs under control.

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Transcript

Carl : 0:00

Hello, I'm Carl Jacobs and I'm co-founder and the world's best food and beverage management platform, but in this podcast series, it's all about finding answers on how to grow and scale your food service business. I'm talking to numerous experts and industry professionals who are passionate about building a healthy food service industry. Join me on this fascinating journey of entrepreneurship in food. Hello everybody, welcome again to a new episode of the Food Service Growth Show. I'm very happy today to have a conversation with Dean Wilson-Hartles, who is the director of food and drink at TRG concessions in the UK, which is a part of the restaurant Group PLC. Welcome, Dean.

Dean: 1:02

Hello, welcome. How are you?

Carl : 1:04

I'm fine, thank you very much. Thank you for being on the podcast. I have always the same first question who is Dean and what has he been doing in the past?

Dean: 1:14

So who is Dean? so Dean Wilson, as you said, director of food and drink for the restaurant group looking after TRG concessions, which is a pillar of the business. So it's split into three pillars. We have TRG concessions, which look after the travel hubs within the UK. We have Brunning and Price Pubs, which is a pub division, which has pubs all across the UK, and we also have Wagamamas. But my focus is purely looking after the UK airports and any travel hubs that we have within our business. I've been cooking since 1985, sounds a very long time ago. Started off as a young boy, left school on a Wednesday and got a job on a Friday in a gentleman's club in Piccadilly, a well known one called the Reform Club, just started off not as a chef but started off as a maintenance porter, changing light bulbs and painting walls. And then after six months, got talking to the kitchen team and just fell in love with the chefs, with the kitchen and just asked, can I do a couple of days a week in there? And before you know it, a year later, I was in the kitchen of the Reform Club and just learning a bit, and then started my chefing career. Yeah, back in 1985. So I worked my way through through London, took a job wherever I can to get obviously get experience. Try to do that work, work experience where you worked, went college, started off in a little restaurant and always had goals I wanted to reach every couple of years. then obviously Westminster College, which was well known College back then, still is now. and then just worked my way through London. and I worked with people like the Roos brothers, for a little while in the City of London. I worked with Mark Hicks, who's a well known chef that run the Caprice and the Ivy. and then I just worked my way again into some fine dining restaurants. a well known one called Greens, in Mayfair, which was Simon Parker-Bowles, which is obviously, to do with the Royals. Went on to work with Oliver Peyton, at the Atlantic Bar and Grill, Candlewick Room restaurant. And then I sort of, like, took a little bit of a step back. So I've done all the fine dining sort of stuff and, casual dining, then went a different avenue, and went into a wine bar. So I went into a wine bar group in the city. I've done quite a few years there. and then I worked with a company called Benugo, well known company in London. They look after all, like the museums across the UK, Scotland, places like that. So I run the V&A museum for a year and a half, and then got asked to come and join TRG. back then, nearly 11 years ago, coming on as a development chef, had my vision of what I wanted to do in the airports because obviously airport food has the perception of being frozen expensive, not good quality. So I had a vision that I wanted to change that within TRG concessions within a couple of years, and just challenged the teams and what they've been doing in the past, which is very successful. But how can I challenge them going forward and how can I nurture the guys that we had the way I wanted them to work? and yeah, been here 11 years. Covid changed it. We had quite a few sites. Then we shut them down, and then we reopened. My role had changed. I become, a head of food. And then about a year and a half ago, become a director of food and drink and look after the whole of the concessions business now and Barburrito as well.

Carl : 5:15

And that's where we are today.

Dean: 5:17

Hear, been a long career. A long, yeah. A 1985 to now. Very long.

Carl : 5:23

It's. It's pretty interesting, actually. You've done the the whole lot, uh, fine dining and and quick service. do you miss the fine dining?

Dean: 5:31

if I get asked this question a lot, if I had loved to done Michelin star stuff. and I think that's what's missing from my career. Is that proper, full on Michelin star grounding, which, you know, the youngsters get now? I miss all that modern day technology that I never had. Very old school. I've come from the old school background of cooking. Now everything is, you know, sous vide. It's boiling the bag stuff. It's all sorts of gastronomy that I, I think I would struggle with in this day and age, just being that old school type person.

Carl : 6:16

But you, you do, uh, use these new techniques something that is then you're immune to them?

Dean: 6:25

No, we don't really use them. I mean in the, I think maybe in the brunning and pricing they might use a little bit. I think Wagamamas, you know, it's very fast paced in Wagamamas in the concessions business. we just don't have time in that airport environment. It's, it's open for thousands of passengers through the doors. We haven't even got time to think sometimes. So trying to introduce, you know, water baths, sous vide it is quite it's quite hard. I'm not saying in the future we can introduce some of that sort of stuff. We are looking at new technology back of house as it comes to cooking kit, because I think when you're innovating, you're not just innovating on food. You've got to innovate on equipment as well.

Carl : 7:10

Yeah. And, you mentioned that, when you vision. What is that vision exactly? Or what was that vision?

Dean: 7:20

Well, the first thing was freshness. as I said, you know, in an airport, the perception is everything's frozen, comes out quick, it's very expensive. And I just wanted to do, do a bit of polishing up, if you can say that. And just like, you know, how can we make that dish elevate to the next level? How can we give those guests that come through because they are captured audience? How can we make their dining experience special in an airport before they go on holiday? So my vision was always about freshness coming into the menu, niche products, things that the passenger might not have seen before. So it's just looking at the menu, you know, it's not all about burgers and just a plain cheeseburger. How can we elevate that burger to the next level.

Carl : 8:07

And did you succeed?

Dean: 8:10

Yeah I did. It was a challenge for the first couple of years because to change everyone's mindset is quite hard when you've got a business where they've all been quite stuck in their ways for a long time. You know, to change that mindset, to bring fresh burgers in, to bring fresh, to make sauces on site, to make different things on site. You've got to get the buy in from the teams and that's really important. If you can't get that buy in from the beginning, you're fighting a losing battle. And I took them on that journey with me from the regional chefs down to the head chefs in the site. Come on this journey with me and we're going to make it successful. And we did. I mean, we've opened some amazing sites across UK airports and worked with some amazing people And even to this day, we're still doing some of that stuff.

Carl : 8:58

The good feeling would say that once you go and, and the and the preparation of certain dishes, that food costs becomes an issue. Is that something that you experienced as well? And how did you kind of keep this under control to, you know, because of probably they did the frozen thing to keep the food cost low. And how did you deal with that?

Dean: 9:26

I mean, look back when I started. yeah. Food cost is always important on every menu. And every time you design a menu, that's the first thing you think about is the GP. we didn't have the inflation we did then than we do now. So it was a lot more easier to convince people nowadays. Yeah. You've got to look at the ingredient. You know, you can't just willy nilly put stuff on the menu and then look at the cost later. You've got to look at it now. Yeah, you have to menu engineer stuff, which is hard. But I'm always about the freshness and the quality because you are we have got a captive audience, and I think it's really important to give that captive audience what they want. you know, there's so many cooking programs on the telly now. People watch. They're not they're not silly. The guests, they know what they want. They know what they're eating. So yeah, it's look, it's always been a challenge and it's always at a chef's mind at the forefront of his mind. but I'd say it's more of a challenge now, the last two years than it was eight years ago.

Carl : 10:34

Are there stuff that you can't make anymore ago where you say, you know this, this is definitely no go because of GP.

Dean: 10:44

Not because of always because of GP. I think I look at Labour as well. times have changed. with Covid, staff are not there like they always used to be. So you've got you've got to help out the units as well. So if I can, rather than ask someone to stand over a stove and make a sauce for an hour and a half, can I get that recipe made by a supplier? And it comes in already made for us. Yes, it will be a little bit more, but I've taken the pressure off that site. Yeah, to make that product. And the same with the burgers we used to make burgers. Now I give them a recipe to the butcher. He makes the burgers, they come in fresh. So there's ways around. Yeah. Like I said earlier, I'm very old school. I wanted everything made fresh. I was never one to say, oh my God, I'm going to get this coming in already made. I would challenge the guys to make it. But when you stand, you've got sometimes got to stand back, look at the operation and go, you know what, these guys need a hand. So this try and give them as much help as possible and let the supplier do the work. And I think that's what suppliers are there for nowadays.

Carl : 11:49

Yeah that that's a question I had actually I partnerships with your suppliers then.

Dean: 11:57

Yeah. I mean, look, it's important in a over years with the suppliers, because they may want to work with you to create what you're doing. And they they come into our unit and they see what we're doing, they will then put it to us, we can make this for you. We can make that for you. Brilliant. You know, if you can get the taste right, they'll want this, this, get it in and let's put it on the menu. so it's important to have that relationship with all our suppliers.

Carl : 12:25

What is leading when you talk to a supplier,

Dean: 12:31

Uh, right. If I put, uh, Dean's hat on, it would be quality. If I put my business hat on, it's pricing. Pricing then quality. again, that would have been different eight years ago to now. quality would have been at the forefront. But I think now in nowadays it's about pricing because yeah you can't start charging so much for a burger. There's obviously a glass ceiling up there and you can't smash that glass ceiling.

Carl : 13:03

Yeah. No, no, I get that. Well that was a running start actually. Thank you very much for that. I wanted to focus a little bit also on on the restaurant group itself. Okay. can you tell a little bit about, you know, how it came into being, what kind of business structure is behind it? How many locations?

Dean: 13:23

yeah, I mean, I can I can mention what I I mean, obviously, TRG concessions, we've got 35 units, across multiple UK airports. Mhm. that's Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Liverpool, East Midlands. all the way down to Bournemouth and as far up as Aberdeen. So and in between. So we've got Glasgow and Edinburgh. So a mixture of casual dining, pubs, franchise partners Brunning and Price I think have got about 80 across the southeast and up in the north. And then Wagamamas, I think they're sitting on about 168 sites at the moment, as far as I know.

Carl : 14:08

Yeah. And, I hear you say 35 units in what? You are kind of, managing And the concessions. how is this, this food and beverage structured within these 35 units, are they 35 unique units, or are you kind of standardizing and having a standardized menu across the board?

Dean: 14:32

Every unit is different. so we have obviously, like I said, we have a few franchises, so we work with people like Archie's Burgers in Manchester, San Carlo. we've got a franchise, another one in Manchester, which is part of the ETM group. Then we have our own units, which is pubs. So pubs are quite big in the airports. so each pub has a different menu. so we have an Italian which is up in Aberdeen, which is a different menu to another restaurant. So every site has a different menu. They're not a standardized menu. We have standardized products. So what what fresh burger we're using, one will be used across multiples. And the same with a bun the chips and some sauces. But yeah I've got a food team of, uh, two exec chefs, innovations manager, and they split themselves and work on those menus and present to me. So, yeah, it's, it's not easy when you're trying to come up and create menus each year. And then we work closely with the franchise partners. so they'll put a menu in front of us and we will adapt that menu to airport trading.

Carl : 15:44

Yeah. And how many items are you on in any How many different items? I mean, like 36 or 35 units, all different menus. How many menu items are there?

Dean: 16:02

Well, I mean, back in the old days, menus in You had 40 plus dishes on a menu. over time we brought it down because I think the trend now is smaller menus. Focus on what you've got. Obviously with the cost, cost factor and the quality factor, we need to bring that down. for example, an average breakfast menu in TRG has anything from 12 to 18 dishes on the menu. so that's covering a wide range of offers. So making sure you've got vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and your traditional English. And then the main menus, we work on about 20 to 25 dishes depending on the brand. and again, that's a wide range of dishes starting from burgers, fish and chips is massive in an airport to pizzas to small plates. Minimal desserts. But yeah, they've all got the same sort of structure, but all very different but using the same ingredients. So you've got to be clever. Rather than having six different burgers in the business. We have one great burger and that gets used in multiple restaurants across the brand. So lots of food going out of our sites. Yeah,

Carl : 17:18

And if you, if you compare, for example, is food a substantial part of, of the revenue?

Dean: 17:30

again, it depends what airport. some of our sites are 70, 30, uh, dry to wet. Some are more wet than food. it just depends on what Airport, the demographics, the brand. I mean, if you go in some of our pubs, they are packed in the morning, everyone's eating breakfast. But also, on the other hand, everyone's drinking, alcohol as well. And coffee. So it just depends the type of what sort of unit it is. will determine the split of wet to dry.

Carl : 18:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, another question that popped in my head is how many times a year do you refresh the menu? Is this like a one time thing?

Dean: 18:19

Yeah. I think back in the day we used to do a tweak, half yearly. obviously with the cost of menu prints and stuff like that. We've reined it back a bit now. It's very difficult in an airport to High Street, so you don't always get the same passengers, fly out. So we try and do one nice change a year, and throughout the year we have some, limited time offers, which is focused on some drinks, Christmas stuff just to freshen it up. but yeah, it got a bit much where you was trying to do it twice a year for the teams because obviously in an airport there's peaks when they get busy and the summer season, you don't want to we don't do no development because they're just they're getting absolutely hammered. So we're trying to stay away from that. And that's when I made the decision to do a once a year change, which yeah, I think that's ample. Now just to try and obviously keep menu print costs down. And obviously the ingredient cost down as well.

Carl : 19:23

Talking about ingredient cost, how crucial is like yours or travel locations. And in that sense that, is this like high traffic volume you need to constantly reorder or do you have vast amounts of stock constantly, lying around?

Dean: 19:47

No. I mean, we don't we we try let the sites Obviously, they need enough stock to get through a couple of days. But also some of our sites get three day a week deliveries, five times a week deliveries. And in an airport, you can't just rack up and deliver food. You need to book it into consolidation. That needs to be scanned through security. Then it needs to come upstairs to the unit. So it's a long, long process.

It could get delivered at 2: 20:15

00 in the morning, but you won't get your goods until

10: 20:19

00 that morning. So there's quite you've got to make sure that you've got enough backup to see you through a busy morning before your next delivery comes in. And that's not on food and drink. That's on everything from chemicals and, you know, consumables. You've got to be ahead of the game, especially in the busy Heathrow sites.

Carl : 20:40

Mhm. Can you give me an idea on how you work franchisors. Should I say uh, and what is the relationship you have with them.

Dean: 20:54

Yeah. So obviously I mean if I take someone Italian restaurant based up in the north Manchester, really big, well known. we basically they have a very big menu and that's their brand without damaging their brand. We work really closely with them. So I will obviously meet their CEO, their executive chefs. We'll look at a menu and how we can adapt that, like I said, without damaging their brand to implement in an airport, obviously on a high street, you can sit in their restaurant 2 to 3 hours in an airport, you've got to get food out within 15 minutes. The same food that they serve on the high street, 15 minutes to a passenger that wants to get to a gate to catch his flight. So we make sure we just we work together really closely, from everything from the drinks menu to the food menu all the way through to make sure what we're serving represents the brand on the high street really well. Then we meet up, a few times a year. We have quarterly meetings, but then they can also come in and audit our sites at any time they want without telling us, and then they'll feed back to the wider team. Great service, great food. This could be doing a little bit better. You know it weren't as slick there. So we have to work really closely with all the franchise partners. And that includes the airports as well. I mean, the airport is our client. We've got to make sure that our sites are tip top as well.

Carl : 22:24

Mhm. one question that uh that I hear or not hear quite often and maybe you are also confronted with that is ESG. It's the new, the new green. uh, how how are your how is your customer at the airports? Are they already asking you about this? And are you dealing with this already or is this something coming up?

Dean: 22:55

Look, I think TRG are ahead of the game, in Covid before Covid. So we were ahead of the game there. I sit on some of the meetings a lot around the ESG. yes. People I think are aware of it in the airports. The airports are definitely, they're all about sustainability. we're looking how we can get obviously the carbon footprint on menus, which I think for us is a little bit further away than it is on some other parts of the business. But we all do take it seriously. I mean, everything down to gas consumption, electricity, when to switch on stuff. You know, it's very important, like I said, not just to the airport, but to the business. and now the company are working with a company called Clamato that obviously will start showing the carbon on the menus. they're trialing out, I think, the Wagamama's sites first to see how it is, and then they're going to try and filter it into the rest of the business. So yeah, it's very important. sustainability and ESG piece. It's high on the agenda of the business.

Carl : 24:09

All right. you mentioned earlier that Covid, a big impact. Of course, nobody could fly anymore. So you had to kind of probably close all the airports and all of that. Yeah. what was the change and how big was the change before and after Covid for this industry?

Dean: 24:31

Oh, I think I mean, massive I mean for us to phone call and to shut down all those sites in an airport to give the food away. No one knew what was going to happen. We all thought we'd be back to work. and then obviously it went on longer than we thought. and then a lot of the guys, I think not just in the airports, but I think hospitality lost a lot of good people. I think people started to go back home. I mean, we got a lot of Portuguese people. I think they went back to Madeira and stuff like that. And then obviously you just you're in limbo, you just don't know what's going, going to happen. and I think people just, I think hospitality become a scary place to work. like I said, you just didn't know. So, you know, you all work so closely on a kitchen in the front of house. It's just I think people just want to get out of that, obviously industry straight away. Yeah. Coming out of it. I mean, I remember walking around Luton Airport with my new boss and there was eight of us and there was only no more than 20 people in the Luton Airport terminal. And then the prep that was open was only open in one hour intervals. and it was just eerie. And then you just walk through the terminal, no one there where it's usually us on bustle and you see all your sites shut up gathering dust, and you're just thinking, when are we going to open again to get everyone back up and running? But then we did, and we come back with a bang as well. So did the, obviously, aviation come back as well at the same time?

Carl : 26:12

Absolutely. And aviation has never done is this the same. if you look at, you know, post-Covid, are there any positives coming out of this period as well?

Dean: 26:27

Um. Yeah, I think post-Covid I think aviation was doing as good as 2019. and I think it's still doing well now. You can tell. I mean, passenger numbers are up, but also, I think now the cost of living crisis is starting to take effect when people are eating out in the airports. because I think people now are, are looking at things and going, you know, we're going on holiday. Do we spend our money in the airport instead of having four pizzas for chips? I think now they're having two pizzas and three chips. So yeah, I think people are thinking about what they're spending at the airports before they get on, or they're bringing their own food through security and sitting in the lounges just eating their packed lunch.

Carl : 27:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is annoying.

Dean: 27:21

Yeah, it is for us. But that or they're going to buy a buy meal deals and stuff like that. Yeah. It's that whole save some money.

Carl : 27:30

And how do you adapt to that. Because of course that's new reality. So how do you make sure that you don't lose out.

Dean: 27:39

I think you it's quite hard when you got a can get people come through the door. They want a pizza. You know, I mean we're finding out now that people I don't know, they bring their sandwiches, they sit at our tables, but they buy a couple of pints of lager. so we can't really chuck them out because they're still spending. But it's not just in our units, it's in all the units in the airport. You see it everywhere. People undoing foil and or getting a Pret and buying a drink from us. It's just really hard. Yeah.

Carl : 28:12

You now are with the restaurant group, I Ten years, you said.

Dean: 28:17

Yeah. At the end of this year, next January Yeah.

Carl : 28:20

How did you see the industry change in those

Dean: 28:24

It's moved on. Like I said earlier. I mean, when I started, it was very old school cooking times gone on. there's modern techniques. I think chefs now, I mean the youngsters, they want to come out of college and earn, big money, whereas back in the day you had to have your, your training, you had to go through the process to get to the top. And it was very hard. I think now the youngsters can get to the top a lot more quicker. and I just think the eating habits have changed a lot as well. Back then there weren't as much on the telly than there is now. So like I said, you've got the master chefs, you've got great British menus. People look at these and then they expect to see a lot of this stuff in the industry without going to Michelin star restaurants.

Carl : 29:12

Yeah. So, they become more demanding.

Dean: 29:15

Yeah I think. They are I mean people know you know they are demanding. Guests are demanding always. But you know the guest is always right.

Carl : 29:26

That's that's for sure. That's hospitality. That's hospitality is for. You mentioned that the there were changing eating habits. what are these habits that you see emerging, let's say. And where are customers more sensitive to now than they were, let's say ten years ago?

Dean: 29:46

Price. I think the price is another thing I mean, even the Michelin star restaurants now. I mean, back in the day. What? Go to Marco Pierre. It cost you an arm and a leg per head. Now they're all doing deals. Everyone wants to go and have A 3 course meal at Tom Kerridge in London. You can get 30, £40. You wouldn't have seen that ten years ago. so I think that's that's the big change as well, is people are looking out for these deals now as well. So if you can eat in a Michelin star restaurant for lunch, two cores, three cores for under £50, you're going to go there instead of £200 a head.

Carl : 30:26

Is this because there is too much

Dean: 30:29

I think there is now. I mean, you've only got to walk through Soho in London. I mean. Every other door is a restaurant. and they're not bad restaurants. They're good quality restaurants. And if you haven't got a restaurant, you've got a great pub opening up that's obviously pulling in all the people there as well. So the competition out there is massive. I mean, QSR brands are taking over the world at the moment. I mean, I've never seen so many QSR brands on the high street than there is now, and they're great brands. And I mean I see something in on social media. The weekend there was one brand, it was the queues were massive in the UK to get into this one QSR brand. I mean there was queuing all night to get into this one brand. It's unbelievable and I think QSR could be the way forward. I think for now, to be quite honest.

Carl : 31:21

How do you set yourself apart in such a perspective?

Dean: 31:28

You've got to still have great menus. You've got to have the price has got to be right to attract everyone, and the quality has got to be there. I think the minute you start dumbing down quality and people notice it, they'll go to your competitor, even though your competitor might have already dumbed down the quality. So you've got to be ahead of the game. on not only quality freshness, but trends. Trends is the other thing as well that you, you need you can't have trends that you had five, six years ago. You need to have the stuff back, even if you only have it on the menu for six months, you're ahead of the game. And again, it all comes down to that TV that people are looking at what's going on on the telly, magazines, what people are talking about. So that's what trying sets us apart, is how can we be ahead of the curve?

Carl : 32:18

And does plant based burgers are a part of something on your menu? No.

Speaker3: 32:27

I mean, look, we.

Dean: 32:28

We've had plant based stuff on the menu quite we've gone through the phases of looking at, the vegetarian burger, vegetarian sausage, vegan burger, vegan sausage. We've looked at the fake meats. You know, I think the veganism is here to stay. I think, again, people are. I don't think people want the fake meats no more. I think they want the plants, things made from vegetables again, because it's better for them. So we are slowly looking at that whole plant based thing again, and trying to remove fake meats where possible. I mean, it was great a couple of years ago again, now people are looking at what is in that, vegan sausage. What is in that burger? What is on that dish? Yeah. Is it fake? Is it plant? So I think for us it's, it's making sure we've got the right product in the right unit.

Carl : 33:31

That's quite interesting remark actually. I don't often hear that distinction. we talk a lot about, you know, sustainability and non food, non-meat etc. the change in proteins. but but I never heard the, the remark of, you know, fake meat into, let's say a real substance which is not called meat but is just a plant, which is of course better for everything

Speaker3: 33:57

And there's some great meat.

Dean: 33:59

There's some great fake meat seller. I'm not going to say it's not. I've tried hundreds, but I just think people now they are looking for that plant version of it. I just don't know why. It's what people want. And we get asked for it all the time.

Carl : 34:17

How do you find this balance between the And how do you. What? You know, what's the velocity of the change that you are going that this is going through?

Dean: 34:29

Well, I mean, in an airport we have to have If I tell you the top sellers, I mean, I've done the most amazing menus over the years. And then when you put the menu out, everyone, you do the training, everyone's excited. Oh my God, this dish. The minute the menu goes out to the passenger or the guest, I can tell you the top sellers will be a full English breakfast in the morning, in the afternoon, a burger of some kind, and fish and chips. because that's what the people travelling want to eat. Yeah. and then in between, you'll get a great dish that you've developed that someone will have, but they'll always link back to those classics on the menu because that's what they know. Well. yeah. You'll get people trying the new stuff, but fish and chips. Every airport site has a fish and chips apart from, uh, one of our Italian brands, but they will be the top seller every quarter, along with the burger, the chicken burger and the brunch breakfast at lunchtime.

Carl : 35:35

So in the end, however, how we think, how and chips.

Dean: 35:42

That's it. And you would never be able to tried over the years, and you'll always find they will work their way back onto a menu because a passenger has asked or the airport's asked, and then you need to just look. We can't muck around with the classics, but we can do little tweaks to them to make them all different in their own way.

Carl : 36:03

All right, Dean, this was a very interesting I have one final question for you. We've talked a little bit about trends, but can you look five years ahead? Where will we be with the industry?

Dean: 36:15

I think we'll be more QSR, within five years. I think the high street will have. We'll still have the niche restaurants. but I think QSR is going to take over your chicken brands, your, other QSR brands, your burrito brands out there. I think they're going to hit by storm. You can just see it now. They're building up. The momentum is building. Will they last for five years? Yes, I think they will. but we'll still have some high end restaurants within the high street and hotels in airports. airports look for freshness every few years. which we know because we're in that business. I think the airport dining experience will change as well. I think they're looking at QSR within airports a lot more now. and I think slowly the pubs will stay there, but I think slowly some casual dining will be turned into other sort of restaurants. But yeah that's quite a tough question because within five years I'd like to think I'll be retired as well and not in the industry. but yeah, definitely 100% see QSR A lot of coffee and bread options with back in the airports and and on the high street as well.

Carl : 37:34

All right. That is promising to be a final,

Dean: 37:41

Well, I hope so. I'd like to think it it might be a little bit less. But. Yeah. Look, I'll give it the all until the end. and keep developing with my food team, no matter what gets chucked at us. we always give it a go in the airports. And if we can make it work, we'll make it work. and then. Yeah, we'll see.

Carl : 38:02

All right, Dean Wilson-Hartles. Thank you very much for this conversation. And to my, listeners of the the Foodservice Growth Show, thank you very much for tuning in. this is already, we already have more than 20, episodes, which you can check online, on the food service rhodeshow.com. So, feel free to, tune in and listen to some extra podcasts if you feel like it. but for now, thank you very much. Thank you, Dean, for joining me. And see you soon.

Dean: 38:33

Thank you very much. Cheers.

Carl : 38:35

Goodbye. Bye bye.