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“One of our big objectives is to create more magic around our brand. This agreement offers us a fantastic showcase to do just that“ |
Peter Rebeiz, President and CEO, Caviar House & Prunier |
INTERNATIONAL. It has all the ingredients, both literally and metaphorically, of a very tasty deal. The commercial recipe combines one of the world’s most famous names in fine food, Caviar House & Prunier, with one of the travel industry’s leading food & beverage operators, SSP.
“It’s a perfect marriage,” enthuses Peter Rebeiz, President of Caviar House & Prunier, the Geneva-based company that has become synonymous with the ‘delicate black pearl’ of the sturgeon fish, the epitome of culinary luxury down the centuries.
Rebeiz’s company – founded by Peter’s father George in 1950 – has struck a major partnership agreement with SSP, the UK-based but increasingly international food & beverage company that specialises in serving the travelling public. The agreement gives SSP the exclusive rights to operate all new Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bars in travel locations worldwide.
SSP CEO Andrew Lynch believes this is an epicurean and distribution deal made in heaven. Speaking to The Moodie Report just after the agreement was formally signed in Paris last week, he said: “It’s Peter’s brand and baby, so to entrust it to a third party was a difficult thing to do – and we’re delighted about the agreement.
“The logic of the partnership is very compelling. We bring infrastructure and great relationships around the travel world. And the quality of the Caviar House & Prunier product and its delivery is really outstanding.”
Caviar House & Prunier is already a well-established name within the airport environment. The company operates at London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, as well as Zurich, Copenhagen, Geneva, Frankfurt and Vienna. Originally these outlets were run as Caviar House but in May 2004 the company acquired Prunier, the first company to produce caviar in France, where it began operations in 1920.
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“It just works on all levels. It was one of my most pleasurable due-diligence exercises.“ |
Andrew Lynch, CEO, SSP |
The combined story of Caviar House & Prunier is a deeply fascinating one for any devotee of gastronomy – and any student of entrepreneurialism. By the time it acquired Prunier, Caviar House had grown into the world’s largest importer and distributor of caviar (as well as being associated with other top quality seafoods, notably the Balik salmon which it also produces), buying huge quantities of Iranian and Russian produce each year.
Indeed, even to the most knowledgeable of gourmets, it is those two countries – both bordering the Caspian Sea – that are almost exclusively associated with caviar. But France has its own secret, one that is set to be shared with travelling consumers all around the world, thanks to the SSP deal.
That secret was forged in the months after World War 1, when Emile Prunier, a high-class Parisian restaurateur, learned that sturgeon were being caught in France’s Gironde estuary and its tributaries the Garonne and the Dordogne. If that was the good news, the bad news – the really, really bad news – was that the local fishermen were disposing of the sturgeon roe by throwing it overboard as waste.
Prunier quickly moved into what Tony Soprano might call high-quality waste management, setting up several caviar packaging centres in 1921. His restaurant Prunier (long famed as a centre of excellence for the best Russian caviar) was the immediate beneficiary, quickly becoming the only restaurant in the world to serve caviar that had been caught and prepared just 24 hours earlier.
And the restaurant has been serving it up ever since. Today Prunier raises sturgeon in a completely controlled environment in several acres of water alongside the Dordogne River near Bordeaux. The fish are raised from fingerling to spawning – six to eight years later – and the roe complemented by traditional salting procedures designed to produce a range of taste varieties, including Prunier Caviar Paris, available in the French capital within 24 hours of processing.
Did Rebeiz, a gourmet from the old school, take convincing that France could deliver the same quality as Russian or Iranian caviar? Yes, but not for long, he answers. “I had done conferences for years about caviar without ever knowing French caviar existed,” he admits. That all changed in 1996 after YSL co-founder Pierre Bergé had invested in Prunier.
“He asked me if I would be interested in selling his caviar and I thought “why not?”
Later he checked with his father George whether he should invest in the French project. “Over my dead body!” the parent raged. “I rang Pierre back to say my father had accepted,” he recalls with a laugh. “After that our mission was to create the best caviar house in the world.”
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| (Left) Peter Rebeiz and Andrew Lynch shake hands on a ‘marriage made in heaven’; The historic Le Train Bleu Restaurant at the Gare de Lyon railway station was the setting for the press announcement | ||
Enough of the past; the SSP agreement is all about the future for Rebeiz and he professes real delight over the opportunity. “One of our big objectives is to create more magic around our brand,” he says. “This agreement offers us a fantastic showcase to do just that.”
Rebeiz says he was deeply impressed with the SSP set-up and its commitment to quality. “For a company that serves 5 million dishes a day, you would think everything might become a number. But they are highly enthusiastic about everything they do, and the people around the deal at SSP have put me at ease.”
But the alliance did not just happen. Rebeiz reveals that a long-established travel retail relationship acted as the conduit to the new agreement. “I was aware of SSP as a big airport player for some time, but then I learned that Barry Gibson [the former BAA Group Retail Director and Group Chief Executive of Littlewoods, whom Rebeiz knew well -Ed] had joined the Board.”
A meeting on the ski-slopes followed, when Rebeiz touted the notion of some form of formal tie-up. Within a week discussions had been held in Monaco and Paris, and what began as the commercial equivalent of a fingerling spawned an agreement in principle within months.
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| (Left) Jean-Pierre Esmilair, General Manager of Caviar House & Prunier France, leads a tasting of great Prunier caviars; (Right) Susan Gray, SSP’s Client Relations Director – International Development team, demonstrates her classically hands-on method of caviar tasting to Marketing Director Andy Bull | ||
For Lynch the agreement came as the perfect first anniversary present, just days before SSP celebrated its first year away from former parent Compass, having been sold in June 2006 to private equity group EQT. The Caviar House & Prunier deal lends a “halo effect”, Lynch says, pointing out that the company is keen to foster a high-end culinary aspect to its business.
“It’s a great fit – we bring infrastructure and great [travel-related] relationships, and a great track record of managing other peoples’ brands as well – for example Marks & Spencer in the UK [airport] market. And Caviar House & Prunier fills a part of the market that we were not strongly represented in. It is an established international concept that is already clearly defined, and as they have got wind of the deal airports are already ringing us to show interest.
“It just works on all levels,” Lynch says, adding with a smile: “It was one of my most pleasurable due-diligence exercises.” Expect a rapid roll-out of the concept. Lynch admits it is already being included in several of SSP’s airport food & beverage bids.
That will spell good news for travellers, insists Rebeiz, who says that consumers are treated increasingly like “cargo and cows” in airports. The culture of quality dining, for so long part of the international travel experience, has largely disappeared in the modern age of mass travel, he reckons.
“But for many travellers it is not a question of money but of lifestyle,” he says, insisting that a high-quality pre-flight dining option can and will attract plenty of consumer support.
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| The ‘caviar man’ himself, Peter Rebeiz, samples exquisitely fresh Prunier Paris caviar; (right) Andrew Lynch and Peter Rebeiz celebrate the spirit of partnership | ||
Explaining the agreement, Lynch says that SSP has the licence to operate the brand worldwide on an exclusive basis in the travel channel (other than existing airport locations). “We envisage a 20-year deal that will focus on developing Seafood Bars in travel locations, but we’ll also have the opportunity to drive a retail offer,” he explains.
How many outlets does he expect to open? “I think it is quite likely you will see 50 coming up over, say, the next seven years,” replies Lynch. “Obviously we’re very dependent on sites being available, but we’re very optimistic.”
Interestingly, as Rebeiz points out, the Caviar House & Prunier brand is world famous yet it operates only in a comparative handful of markets. “We don’t have a worldwide presence but through SSP we can have that,” he says. “It’s a beautiful proposition.”
The Caviar House proposition found its first airport manifestation in Geneva Airport, after a department store kiosk in the Swiss city burned down in 1969. The first Seafood Bar opened at London Heathrow Airport, thanks to the vision of one Barry Gibson and BAA’s then-CEO Sir John Egan.
Now, that proposition is set to be rolled out around the globe. Anyone who loves caviar – Iranian, Russian or French – will relish the prospect.
THE JOURNEY’S THE THING
The significance that SSP places on the Caviar House & Prunier agreement was underlined by the presence of so many of its senior executives at the press launch in Paris earlier this month, including Vice President Business Development Lars Croné; France and Benelux Managing Director Nick Inkster; Marketing Director Andy Bull; Client Relations Director – International Development team Susan Gray; and CEO Andrew Lynch.
Notes Inkster: “What’s important to us as we grow around the world is that we can meet the aspirations of a growing band of consumers and clients. Increasingly we find that our commercial clients are being driven more and more by consumers’ needs. And in that sense the beauty of SSP is that with all our concepts we can present such a depth of offer.”
Croné says that the company is ideally placed to capture a major consumer dynamic – a flight to quality. “Increasingly people are prepared to pay for the experience,” he says, noting a move away from mass-market trends. He highlights the example of Zurich Airport, where Chief Commercial Officer Peter Eriksson “has been prepared to take a chance – that’s been the key to Zurich’s success.”
Inkster applauds such attitudes among airport executives, a philosophy that he believes is spreading. “There seems to be a real and growing desire to understand what the consumer wants. And ultimately that is what drives the financial health of airports.”
Croné goes further. “In Europe it all started with 1999 [and the abolition of intra-EU duty free – Ed]. People began to realise that food & beverage was much more than a simple necessity. We were an industry in denial until that point.”
Even the low cost carrier dynamic is not mitigating against the move to eat better in the airport environment, says Andy Bull. “In fact the cheaper the flight the more people will spend on eating,” he affirms.
Croné shares his colleagues’ clear passion for the Caviar House & Prunier project. “Obviously you need to study the passenger mix in each location but we’re sure this is a global proposition,” he says.
With attitudes to commercial revenues changing almost by the day in the airports business, the future seems bright for concepts such as Caviar House & Prunier. When the great American travel writer Paul Theroux once said: “The journey’s the thing”, he was lamenting the fact that modern-day travel had become all about the destination. The trip itself (and the departure point) had become something to endure and get over with as soon as possible, he complained.
Inkster is firmly in the Theroux camp – “the journey itself, if done properly, can be as enjoyable as arriving,” he says. Bull agrees: “We’ve kind of lost that – airports have become like a mass-transit station and we tend to put the fun behind us.”
But next time you’re travelling through Heathrow Airport take a look at any group of passengers enjoying their salmon, caviar or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc at a Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bar. Note the widespread sense of pleasure, the diversity of passenger profile and the belated relaxation in their faces and postures.
Make no mistake about it, here is a brand that is all about fun and about indulgence. Theroux would surely have been among the first onto one of those Seafood Bar stools.
THE PRUNIER RANGE OF CAVIARS
To celebrate the agreement between SSP & Caviar House & Prunier, the latter’s General Manager France, Jean-Pierre Esmilair, gave a tutored tasting of all the company’s main lines. Sampling the caviars straight from one’s hand – the method favoured by Peter Rebeiz – was a unique experience. So was the complexity and nuances of the range. Here is a summary of the Prunier line-up.
Payusnaya Ikra (pressed caviar): Often considered the caviar of connoisseurs. Three to four kilos of caviar are required to produce one kilo of pressed caviar. Completely hand-pressed.
Tradition: Accounting for up to 60% of total production, it is said to have a distinctive hazelnut flavour. A classical caviar style.
Heritage: Only 8-10% of Prunier’s caviar production goes into this ‘Rolls Royce’ variety. Prepared according to Persian methods, it has a big, rich lingering taste and large grains of light green/grey colour. Superb.
Paris:: From catch to plate in a matter of days, this is the world’s freshest caviar. The lack of salt and high oil content lends an amazing soft, creamy character.
Saint James: Developed to the English taste, it acquired a cult following in London after the Prunier restaurant opened in St James Street, Piccadily, in 1932. Those who love Iranian caviar will take delight in this variety.
Gout American (Malassol): The curious name refers to the period when Prunier would specially produce this line with its Beluga-style character for clients in the USA. High in salt and very dark, it’s said to be a ‘love it or hate it’ proposition. We loved it.
BACKGROUND ON THE PLAYERS
SSP operates a broad portfolio of international and national brands as well as its own tailor-made concepts in 27 countries. It serves around 5 million customers every day in over 2,000 restaurants, bars, cafes, convenience stores and food courts across airports, railways stations and shopping centres.
Caviar House has been the world’s largest importer and distributor of high quality caviar since 1950. It joined forces with Prunier, the first company to produce caviar in France (in 1920) in May, 2004 with the goal of producing the world’s finest caviar.
