Food & beverage – a Morpho growth story
From US$20 million in annual sales, Morpho Travel Experience has ambitions to double the size of its relatively young food & beverage division, created just five years ago.
Alongside operating the franchise for sister brand Café Britt at airports, Morpho has developed its own in-house brands, alongside carefully selected franchise partners such as California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), a top ten pizza brand in the US.
A prime example of the vibrancy and originality of the Morpho F&B business in action is the 1,000sq m food court at Juan Santamaría Airport in San José, adjacent to the company’s multi-faceted, colourful retail zone across a further 1,000sq m in departures.
There, Morpho manage concepts such as Avokato, Toro, Bar Imperial and a large CPK, alongside other grab & go spaces, with food freshly and efficiently made in nearby kitchens.
F&B Corporate Director Byron Mora says: “We see big opportunities in F&B. The best concepts show the food being prepared, and we try to do that where possible.
“We aim for quality. We could take a well-known burger brand to the airport but we preferred to create a better burger as our own concept in Toro, using better ingredients and healthier. That’s the key.”
Mexican food is hugely popular across Latin America today, as it is in the US, so tacos, burritos and avocado toast all do well at Avokato, as do the excellent salads that we sampled during our visit.
Tapping into regional dining trends (Avokato at San José International Airport pictured)
“We see an opportunity for sushi, which is another universal trend,” says Mora. “And we see fusion concepts with say, sushi and Mexican, like Sushito in Guadalajara, doing well. We like these fusion ideas, categories within categories.
“We have a chef team that works with our menus all the time. We have two chefs working on innovation and a full calendar of innovation. We make bakery changes once a year in June/July, so we analyse what works best, what trends we need to tap into and adapt these to both street locations and airports.”
With CPK, the company is master franchisee for Latin American airports. It operates an airport-tailored menu for the fast-growing brand, with for example, just one pizza size. The best seller and signature item is Chicken Barbeque pizza, which is popular in the US and translates well to other markets.
Mora says: “We have variants such as cauliflower crust and gluten-free. CPK is also open to new ideas that we suggest, and recipes for different times, whether it’s a pizza with egg, bacon and potatoes for breakfast, or new variants through the day.”
Also at San José, there are some neatly placed concepts towards the gates, for example sports bars or the popular bar concept representing the Imperial beer brand, the market leader in Costa Rica.
Director of Retail Alberto Perez Ibarra says: “We became a marketing vehicle for their brand at airports. We also use this venture with Imperial to mix retail with F&B; we sell a lot of merchandise for their brand, caps, t-shirts and more.”
Looking ahead, Morpho management says that the company is equipped to offer a diverse range of dining options at any airport.
Mora says: “We have sit-down, we have grab & go and many options across the food experience. The nice part of the experience is that we have these local concepts like Toro, plus international such as CPK, all of which adapts to passenger needs in a profitable way. And you need a blend as many RFPs insist on having international options.”
One of the latest Morpho locations to open at Santiago de Chile Airport
As well as investing in expansion, making more from its current footprint remains a priority.
Mora says: “With F&B we are pushing hard to see how far we can go with our current capacity. At peak times in San José we have 14-16 POS up and running, very quick turnover, with menu items produced on demand. By midday on a typical day recently [our visit was in mid-March -Ed] we had 4,000 orders across our restaurants at the airport; a year ago we would never had hit that.
“We have raised the bar for quality, we have outstripped the performance of the previous food court with our own brands and some franchises. Now we aim to drive performance even higher.”
Riding the wave: Talking F&B at CPK, Juan Santamaria Airport with The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt (fourth left) was the Morpho Travel Experience team, including staff, left and right, and (from third left) Strategic Development Director Marcela Villalobos Moya, CEO Adriana Echandi, Director of Retail Alberto Perez Ibarra and F&B Corporate Director Byron Mora
August 2023