Retail inMotion won Best Onboard Catering Innovation 2019 for the SWISS Saveurs programme

SWISS Saveurs

Q.Tell us a bit about the product, its background, and how it came to market
A. We are offering the passengers on SWISS (Geneva) innately Swiss products. We collaborated with local, famous partners like Globus and created products of high quality and with a high amount of “Swissness”. We have contracts with big local and international suppliers like Coca Cola, Nestle or Zweifel, but also start-ups like Freely.

We wanted to generate a programme that was unique in the industry and it was seen as a pilot project for a national carrier’s onboard ordering. The SWISS Geneva route, with strong competition from EasyJet, was thought to the best test ground.

The programme offers products for sale in a range of categories: boulangerie (fresh sandwiches, pastries, tartlets), specials (e.g. planchette, ice cream, cheese fondue), sweet and salty snacks, hot and cold drinks, and alcohol. We work closely with the airline and our suppliers which gives us the ability to understand the market/our passengers and the upcoming trends very well.

Q.What do you think puts your product ahead of others in the same field?
A. We collaborated with a renown local partner Globus and created products full of high quality “Swissness”. More than 60% of the products are made in Switzerland. We do the sourcing on our own – talking to locals, visiting local shops, browsing the internet and organising our own Swiss supplier days.

Q.What need or onboard trend does the product address?
A. We addressed the personalisation trend by offering the customers a rotating selection, meaning more frequent travellers can always enjoy something new onboard. Also, food trends like local, organic, vegan, gluten-free products are heavily featured in our assortment – we have sandwiches with Gruyére cheese, wine and meat from Swiss Romande, a vegan, gluten-free cookie from the Genevan company Freely and organic, fairtrade almonds from Pakka.

We have products onboard that no other airline has – e.g. for the fondue, we joined forces with our partner SPIRIANT and designed a special box that makes the serving and consumption of this product very convenient. Another example would be the Planchette from Globus; we included a wooden platter that the passenger can take home.

Q.What impact has winning an Onboard Hospitality Award had on your business?
A. It is an honour and for all the people involved in the project. It has shown that working together as a team leads to success.

We have put the Onboard Hospitality Award on the cover page of our summer menu card of SWISS Saveurs and mentioned this in the introductory text – this helped us show the passenger how special our programme is.

Winning the Onboard Hospitality Award gave us a higher visibility. Particularly for a start-up project like Swiss Saveurs, this helped us get a new supplier onboard and attract their attention.