Retail inMotion and Eurowings bring Doner Kebab to the skies

Retail inMotion is known for its revolutionary ideas and award-winning portfolio. Just to give you an example, we invented SuprLid (learn more about it here), a portable cafetiere that sits on top of a standard 12oz or 8oz paper cup and filters real ground coffee, to give passengers exactly what they desired – real, fresh coffee. Furthermore, the unique packaging of our Boxerchips (learn more about this product here) allows the client to fit as many products as possible into confined space in airline trollies due to the dimensions of the box – with Boxerchips you can fit up to 40% more product into airline trollies than the leading salty snack.

Last year, Retail inMotion, in partnership with Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS), received a prestigious Onboard Hospitality Award for the SWISS Saveurs program. Co-developed and managed by Retail inMotion, the unique onboard program allowed Economy Class passengers the opportunity to upgrade their inflight experience by purchasing authentic Swiss-inspired dishes, gourmet sandwiches, hot & cold snacks, and beverages. The introduction of the cheese fondue in particular received national attention, with articles in several newspapers and national TV coverage on popular late night chat show “Deville”.

A new product of ours has been getting a lot of attention from the German media lately: the Doner Kebab, one of Germany’s favorite street foods. Retail inMotion introduced the product in the Eurowings Catalogue Autumn/Winter 2019, which marked the first time Doner Kebabs are included in buy-on-board menus! Therefore, guests aboard Eurowings flights have the unique opportunity to order a Doner Kebab: heated wheat pita bread filled with fried chicken, crispy cabbage salad and goat cream cheese.

From idea to product: All aboard the Doner express!

“The Retail inMotion Product Team is always eager to find new and innovative trend products for our airline clients,” said Retail inMotion Product Manager Onboard Retail Claudia Witt. “Our main goal is to create excitement on board and surprise our customer and passengers alike. We have already introduced so many exciting products on board such as a premium burger with French fries on Eurowings long haul flights or fondue on SWISS, so it was time for something new!”

In Germany, the Doner Kebab business is very lucrative: sales of this beloved street food snack top €3.5 billion each year and roughly 600 tons of Döner meat are consumed every day. So why not bring one of Germany’s favorite hot snacks onboard Eurowings flights? “Eurowings was the ideal partner for this project, as we have many German customers on board and the airline is considered young and innovative,” Claudia added.  “We developed the product together with our supplier and fine-tuned the ingredients until it was perfect to be presented to our client.”

Before every magazine/assortment change, the Retail inMotion Product Team invites clients to attend menu presentations in order to discuss the current assortment’s performance and present (and taste!) new products that can be offered on board. Claudia commented: “Eurowings was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Doner Kebab and really liked the idea of being the first airline serving such as product on board. So we decided to list the product first on long haul flights.

In the first few weeks, we noticed that the product became our bestseller in our Hot Meals portfolio and decided to do the roll-out on all short- and middle-haul flights from February 2020 onwards.”

Before including the unexpected product in the menu, Retail inMotion tested the iconic snack on several routes throughout Germany and Europe in order to find out how passengers and crew members feel about serving this fast food product mid-flight. As it turns out, most of the passengers were eager to try the Doner Kebab and the feedback was positive. The crew members loved the idea of serving a product that has earned cult status.

Those who haven’t had the chance to taste the Doner Kebab will be happy to learn that the product will still be available during summer. After analyzing the product’s performance and feedback from customers, we will discuss whether it will stay on the menu for a few more months.

The good news is that Retail inMotion is already working on new projects, so stay tuned! Exciting new projects are coming soon.   

Tomasz Adamczak

Tomasz Adamczak

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