CEO Rossinyol: 'Avolta runs more than the market. Now we continue to invest"

Geographical diversification, digitalisation, data transformation, customer loyalty, creativity in the shopping experience. The growth directions of Avolta, the Basel-based travel retail and food & beverage group born from the merger between Autogrill and Dufry effective from 1 November 2023, look to the future albeit in a complex international context. "2025 was a very challenging year. However, we managed to achieve the results we expected. We are present in 27 countries with 5,100 points of sale and the average of the markets where we are present has proven to be very resilient," comments Xavier Rossinyol, CEO of the company, who is passionate about sports and challenges. So much so that he makes a footballing comparison for the aggregation between the two realities, he a Barcelona fan: 'Managers have three characteristics in common with the coaches of sports teams. First of all, they must have a strategy, i.e. a way of playing, and they must share this vision with the team, and it must above all be a long-term vision. Secondly, managers need people who have different skills and are not only different in terms of gender, nationality and experience, but also, and above all, in terms of ability, because they must be able to play different roles exactly as in a football team. In a company you need the right person to fill the right position, and in the integration of Autogrill and dufry I paid a lot of attention to this aspect. The third characteristic is that you need to understand that in a team there are no individual losers or individual winners because the results come from the whole team. A coach can only make a difference if he works together with his team'.

The results are tangible. The group ended the first half of the year with organic revenue growth of 5.7%, supported by increased passenger traffic and higher spending per traveller, despite the negative impact of exchange rates. Core revenue stood at CHF 6.61 billion (or USD 8.13 billion), up from CHF 6.34 billion a year earlier. "There is no doubt that geopolitical tensions from the war in the Middle East to the war in Ukraine have had an effect on international tourism traffic. Our strength is being a very diversified group geographically but also from a business perspective. We continue to invest in entertainment, data management, digitisation, and we are able to grow more than the market,' comments Rossinyol, who also admits: 'We have experienced a slowdown in domestic tourism in the US due basically to the economic uncertainty in the country. The current data is not negative, but there are so many uncertainties on the economic front that affect the Americans' spending predisposition. The fear is that a recession will come, which will immediately turn into layoffs. As a result, domestic traffic was down 1% when normally within the US there is a growth of between 2 and 4%. Our revenues in the country were flat. On the international tourist front, there was a drop in European and Canadian travel to the US, but it is also true that this drop was offset by an increase in tourism from South America'.

"The synergies between Autogrill and Dufry at the cost level have already been realised in the first year when the estimates were to realise them in two years. However, the value of the merger lies in the combination of the two companies, and we are now exploring new strategies to generate more synergies in terms of revenue and profitability," the group's CEO points out, adding: "We want to be as surprising for our customers as we want to be predictable for our shareholders. That is why we have confirmed our estimates for the full year. The beginning of the third quarter has given us indications in line with the first half year'.

Avolta confirmed its annual organic growth target of between 5% and 7%, and its commitment to increase the core Ebitda margin by 20-40 basis points and the equity free cash flow conversion rate by 100-150 basis points per year. The company also expects, at current exchange rates, a negative currency impact on 2025 of 3%, mainly related to the weakness of the euro and dollar against the Swiss franc.

"We intend to focus on growth in two directions: on the one hand organic, with investments that can develop our business, and on the other hand through selective acquisitions of medium and small size that are not transformative, but rather a fair option with a focus on shareholder value creation," Rossinyol emphasises, continuing: "We are already large and do not want to grow further, and we have no plans to issue new shares to service acquisitions.