“If I Knew Then …”

​A Conversation with Liz Grzechowiak
Senior Director, Brands and Concept Development
Delaware North
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Liz Grzechowiak develops brands and concepts for Delaware North. Before Covid, Liz developed concessions for Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. She has clearly seen the concessions industry from “both sides.” And Liz has seen many RFPs – from “both sides.” What surprises Liz: “there’s so much opportunity to bolster and refine the process, to make it a streamlined experience for both parties.” All it takes is transparency and communication. Which, ultimately, would enhance the guest experience.
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From her Delaware North perspective, Liz observes that developing and operating concessions is complex, a complexity that is not fully appreciated by airports. Liz’s key insight: both sides face constraints, but more transparency and partnership could overcome some of the constraints and lead to better concession programs. She urges concessionaires to not be shy to share information that can help shape the airport’s understanding of what a concessionaire needs to successfully operate. For her former airport colleagues, streamline RFPs and timelines to what is truly needed for the process. Liz recognizes everybody's understaffed, and the airport is doing their best to put out a clear, concise communication to concessionaires about what they expect. “But I would encourage people to step back: Is my information complete? Are all of these details necessary? Are these really going to influence us, or is this just noise?” Let’s avoid the noise to create better concessions programs.
 
Here are three key takeaways from our conversation with Liz:

1. Airports often don’t fully grasp the complex operational constraints concessionaires work under in the airport environment. The lack of full understanding creates a gray area that diminishes the hospitality experience airports and concessionaires want to create.
2. Longer term planning is required in concession contracts to build in flexibility for brands that now evolve faster. The current model leads to stale programs over 10-year terms. “And nobody wants a stale environment. Everybody wants to be on trend. Everybody wants to create environments that you can drive revenue and engage the guests in the way that the guests want to be engaged at that given time.” 
3. We want a street side experience from start to finish, full of hospitality, for our guests the traveling public. But our employees – who are responsible in large part for delivering the guest experience – face many challenges at the airport not shared by their street side counterparts. Liz believes “partnering to create an employee-centric experience in the airport environment, in order for the airports to achieve the level of hospitality that they’re looking for, is a big gray area that we have a lot of work that we need to do.”

 
These are just three takeaways. Liz offered many more insights regarding the complexity of business operations, process, and the guest experience. We invite you to watch, listen to, or read our interesting and informative conversation at the following links:

Watch the Video

Listen to Audio

Read a Transcript

MEET OUR GUEST

​Liz Grzechowiak
Senior Director, Brands and Concept Development
Delaware North

​Liz is the Senior Director, Brands and Concepts for Delaware North – a leading global hospitality and entertainment company operating in a variety of industries including travel, sports, resorts, gaming, and national parks. The Brands and Concepts team is responsible for overseeing the development and execution of brand strategies for Delaware North’s diverse portfolio of businesses. Liz’s previous experience includes Director of Business Development at Caribou Coffee, as well as the Assistant Director of Concessions and Business Development for the Metropolitan Airports Commission at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP).
 
She started in the airport industry in 2013 and hit the ground running to develop the rebid strategy for MSP Airport ultimately overseeing the buildout of 35 new specialty retail and convenience stores and 45 new restaurants. In her role, Liz served as the lead authority in the design process collaborating with architects, consultants, and inspectors to ensure