Hospitality and Travel (Podcast)

In this episode of The Main Course, host Barbara Castiglia talked with Joe Robert-Thornton, EVP and COO of HMSHost, a world leader in creating dining for travel venues. HMSHost operates locations all over North America and is part of Autogrill Group, the world’s leading provider of food & beverage services for people on the move. 

“We’re not really a brand, and so most people won’t know this because we’re operating other people’s brands,” Robert-Thornton said. “We’ve had relationships, prior to the pandemic, with more than 300 brands.” 

With operating a lot of brands, they’ve bid a lot of locations in airports. When folks compared the toll the travel industry took during the pandemic, they made comparisons to 9/11. The lack of travel caused a lot of their brands to take significant hits. Obviously, this was much worse, according to Robert-Thornton. But, now that airports are starting to open back up, these restaurant and hospitality brands are seeing more…