Pivot Toward Recovery

A Conversation with Nick Crews
Managing Partner and President/CEO, Crews Hospitality
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​Earlier this summer, ACI-NA sponsored its annual Business of Airports conference. One of the many insightful panels was “Pivoting best practices in concessions.” The significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and solid recovery that has followed together forced airport operators and airport concessionaires to pivot their strategies and operations to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. This panel provided insights into their own experiences and best practices for pivoting the airport concession industry through our post-pandemic recovery.
 

For his presentation at the conference, ARRA Board member Nick Crews shared his company’s strategies to pivot toward recovery. Crews Hospitality engineered menus to combat supply shortages and higher costs. They modified store operations to deal with labor shortages and increasing wages. They accelerated the ordering of construction materials to offset delivery delays. Most importantly, they worked with their airport partners.
 
However, despite the ongoing recovery, challenges continue. Indeed, as Nick notes, “everything has changed.” Here are three key takeaways from our conversation with Nick that may define our industry’s “new normal”:

1. Labor remains a challenge. Although the availability of workers has moderated, Nick estimates his company is still 10% below ideal staffing. More critical, wage rates have skyrocketed: more than 30%, which trickles up through the entire staff.
2. Cost of goods are up at least 10% on average across the board (and much higher for some products). The combination of increasing labor and goods costs severely squeezes margins, particularly in light of pricing restrictions in many airports.  
3. The current high interest rate environment also challenges small and mid-size businesses. Carrying costs of capital investment have increased 3 to 5 percentage points over the past year, a direct hit to the bottom line.

 
Despite these challenges, Nick remains optimistic: the pandemic also created a spirit of partnership among industry participants – everyone had to come together to survive. He hopes the momentum of partnership built during the pandemic keeps going because “everything has changed. It’s time to reset!”
 
Nick offered many more insights regarding the business impact of the pandemic, as well as his company’s pivots toward recovery. 

MEET OUR GUESTS

​Nicholas B. Crews
Managing Partner & President/CEO
Crews Hospitality
 
Nick has over 15 years of experience in the retail, food and beverage/hospitality airport concessions industry. As President/CEO of Crews Hospitality, Nick provides overall leadership to the organization by ensuring the Crews mission and vision are implemented and strategic goals are achieved.
 
Growing up in the airport concessions business, Mr. Crews has worked in various facets of the industry including, but not limited to, management of day-to-day operations, human resources, purchasing, business development and loss prevention. In December 2019 Nick raised capital to purchase majority interest in Crews companies from his family. Crews currently operates F&B and Retail in 4 airports (32 location 18 local/regional/national brands) – six retail locations at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), four food & beverage/retail locations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, eight sit-down restaurant and fast casual locations at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and fourteen retail and food & beverage locations in Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport with seven new locations opening at LAX and IAD in 2022 and 2023.