Azbuka Vkusa started producing in-flight meals for airlines

Azbuka Vkusa started production of ready meals for the Russian airlines Rossiya and Smartavia. The retailer’s signature sandwiches have already appeared in the Discovery Bar & Shop, which specializes in selling food and goods to passengers on board aircraft during the flight. The representative of Discovery Bar & Shop confirmed that the testing of the project was successful and now the store orders Azbuka Vkusa products on an ongoing basis.

To prepare positions at Azbuka Vkusa’s own kitchen factory in St. Petersburg, a special technology is used – fresh sandwiches are subjected to shock freezing, and a few hours before reaching the passengers, the product is defrosted and becomes completely ready for use, says a representative of the retailer. At the testing stage of the project, meals became available to passengers departing from Sheremetyevo and Pulkovo airports on regular flights of Rossiya airlines lasting over four hours, on all charter flights of Rossiya airlines and on flights of airlines Smartavia. It is planned that at the launch stage, the retailer will provide sandwiches from 15 to 50 flights per day, says a representative of Azbuka Vkusa.

In the future, it is planned to expand the range, including hot dishes, salads and desserts, and the possibility of releasing co-branded products is also being considered, said Discovery Bar & Shop. Azbuka Vkusa also plans to introduce groceries under its own brand on the menu for airlines.

For the retailer, b2b projects related to the development of new commodity items are a priority for the coming year, said Dmitry Netsievsky, director of direct sales at Azbuka Vkusa. According to him, the production of frozen products will expand the current capacity and fulfill individual orders using new developments and technologies. In particular, to expand the possibilities of b2b and the “aviation” project, new equipment was purchased – a shock freezing chamber worth about 5 million rubles.

Azbuka Vkusa has been developing its own production since 2012, the kitchen factory in St. Petersburg was launched in 2017, its area is almost 7000 sq. m. In 2022, the share of own production in the turnover increased to 30%. In 2023, the retailer will allocate up to a third of its factory capacity to partner b2b projects. The revenue of Azbuka Vkusa in 2022 amounted to 77.9 billion rubles. (+164 million rubles by 2021), net loss – 952.9 million rubles, according to RAS financials.

Azbuka Vkusa is not the first retailer to overcome the virtual monopoly of Aeromar, which for a long time supplied rations to almost all airlines, experts remind. In 2021, Vkusvill began deliveries of ready-made food to Azur Air in 2021, Vedomosti wrote. Now the network supplies 15 different dishes and products for the S7 Airlines menu, and also cooperates with the Aero-trade company, which works with various airlines to supply goods for in-flight trade, a representative of Vkusvill said.

Oleg Panteleev, Executive Director of Aviaport, says that competition in the in-flight catering market has been facilitated by the development of food preparation and packaging technologies that remove restrictions on the location of the factory – previously they had to be in close proximity to the airport. The second factor is the development of information technologies that allow creating an order for almost every flight. Both are now at the disposal of retailers, and the most ambitious of them have decided to master the new market. “We used to see the opposite trend: in-flight catering manufacturers supplied products to chain stores, rail carriers and schools. It is difficult to say how long-term this trend is. The one who has stronger production and IT solutions will win,” the expert believes.

Healthy competition improves the quality of the product and service, so airlines began to cooperate with someone other than the usual suppliers, says Renat Ostapenko, director of the on-board trade direction, head of Discovery Bar & Shop. According to him, this niche is of interest to many food manufacturers, as it is a new market for them and, in the broad sense of the word, very effective advertising. Any co-branding with a well-known food manufacturer entails an increase in status and recognition for him, Ostapenko is sure.

Objectively, from the point of view of product quality, Azbuka Vkusa will not have any difficulties, they have one of the most high-tech complexes in Russia, Mikhail Burmistrov, General Director of Infoline Analytics, believes. He points out that the main difficulty of such products is their low margin compared to the network’s own retail chain. On the other hand, it will provide a higher load of its own production and improve the economy and distribution channels, Burmistrov notes.

Other retailers surveyed by Vedomosti do not yet plan to enter this sales channel. Metro and Magnit do not have such plans. A spokesman for the latter says the chain is now focusing on increasing presence and developing a ready-to-eat range at convenience stores. IN X5 Group and Ashane did not respond to a request.