Concession Delivery SystemWashington Dulles International

Airport

Background• Airports Authority built commissary in 1992 to house

centralized delivery system• Prior to Westfield

– Host was master operator (operating 50% of units)– Host ran the commissary and delivered to itself and other food

and beverage tenants

• Westfield awarded food and beverage contract April 2004– Management contract only– Assumed responsibility for commissary operations

Operating Conditions

• Multiple Operators– New contract created a number of owners, each

with only 2 or 3 locations

• Only food tenants used Commissary– Retailers received direct deliveries from FedEx

and UPS – Not required to use the commissary system

Facility Constraints• Commissary

– On airport, landside only

– Only location with capacity to accommodate central deliveries

• No Loading Docks • No freight elevators in Midfield concourse C/D

– Pallet deliveries broken down at Commissary and placed on smaller carts, or

– Unpacked on ramp at delivery points

Commissary Services

• Deliveries at the Commissary– Broken down– Grouped for delivery by concourse

• All food vendors required to participate– Only exceptions for highly perishable product, e.g., Dunkin

Donuts.• Contractor costs passed directly to tenants

– Based on utilization (number of cartons delivered) – No Westfield mark-up

• Contract Cost: $700,000 per year, estimated

Challenges• Adds an extra layer of occupancy costs to

tenants that they cannot directly control• Requires communication and coordination

between commissary and tenants to ensure deliveries are promptly accepted and unpacked

• Tenants must still bear the cost of having staff in place to accept and unpack the shipment

Lessons Learned

1. Planning concession sales and storage space is key to efficient deliveries and storage

• Lack of loading docks or dedicated delivery spots, and lack of freight elevators, makes deliveries and unpacking more time consuming

• increases the amount of time that food remains out of temperature controlled environment

• Increases potential for ramp traffic conflict

Lessons Learned

2. Storage space needs to be large enough to accommodate and unpack deliveries.

3. Close coordination required between commissary and tenants to ensure properly acceptance and unpacking of deliveries

• Documentation of delivery and acceptance is critical

Lessons Learned

4. Having a central commissary facilitates screening of product where deliveries arrive from street-side.

5. A commissary large enough to accept all product deliveries before distribution to individual locations will be critical to any implementation of 100% product screening.