World’s largest brands join the ranks of the future of air travel: Announcing Urban-Air Port’s latest retail partnerships
The World's first, fully functioning vertiport – Air One – Will be home to global F&B and retail brands. Copyright Urban-Air Port Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Nestle, Rituals, Henkell Freixenet and Andreu World have thrown their hats into the ring and joined Urban-Air Port’s impressive retail partner ecosystem.
As the official unveiling approaches, Urban-Air Port have announced the latest names in their portfolio who will join the ranks of the retail and Food & Beverage (F&B) pioneers investing in a new form of air travel. Nestle, Rituals, Henkell Freixenet and Andreu World have joined Anatomie, Bottega S.p.A., Eurest (Compass Group), LG Business Solutions, Mother, and Paul & Shark in the rush to be among the first to have a leading presence in the advanced air mobility market.
Urban-Air Port designs, delivers and operates vertiport hubs for passenger air taxis and delivery and logistics drones – providing the infrastructure on the ground to support air mobility a burgeoning market that offers extraordinary promise for the future of sustainable transport. The urban air mobility market is forecasted to be worth US$1 trillion in the next 20 years and retailers are seeing the potential of an enormous new customer base.
“As the travel industry looks to a more sustainable and passenger-centric future, Rituals is delighted to be part of the Urban-Air Port ecosystem and global launch. The vision of the Urban-Air Port team for carbon-neutral travel is one which is perfectly aligned with our goals as a B Corp certified organisation to continuously improve our social and environmental impact.”
A WHOLE NEW WAY TO SHOP AS YOU FLY
For any “vertiport” to be viable and sustainable, the location is crucial and these locations will serve a demand. UAP is an ultra-compact but high capacity technology driven solution, demanding the travel retail model of today to adapt. The industry, including F&B heavyweights, are in agreement with this necessary evolution..
UAP’s Urban-Air Choice is the brand name for the suite of products and services that will be available to all users and will offer a novel way of shopping and engaging with a wide range brands. No longer reliant on the traditional ‘shop’ format, retailers will interact with travellers through experiential ‘pop-ups’ and digital interactive displays. This type of interface enables retailers to remain nimble and flexible, responding to customer demand and market forces in real time.
Alongside this physical presence, Urban-Air Choice will operate under the Urban-Air Port App, which can be accessed as the customer moves from place to place. This gives customers absolute flexibility and control over how they browse, select, pay for, and receive products and services. Purchases can be delivered to their next destination, including their office, home, or nearest pre-arranged collection point, as autonomous delivery drones will be on hand to deliver their purchases to a local hub for collection. The Urban-Air Choice suite and app could ultimately be licenced to other aviation infrastructure developments including traditional long-haul carriers/providers.
“The volume of interest in Urban-Air Port from the retail market has acutely shown how travel retail is evolving and we are particularly pleased to have joined forces with such important brands that share our vision for a sustainable future. I’m excited to build on these partnerships and continue to expand the offer to evolve and develop the way that we view the next incarnation of retail.”
Coventry (UK City of Culture 2021) is the location for the first Urban-Air Port hub, AirOne The prototype will open on Monday 25th April and the public will be able to visit from 28th April, paving the way for a global network of similar sites planned by Urban-Air Port over the next 5 years.
“We are delighted to partner and celebrate the launch event of Air-One by Urban-Air Port, being the headline sponsor on the 25th of April with our Mionetto Prosecco and to accompany and support the launch of such a future-oriented and important concept. The concept of sustainable urban air mobility has for sure a great potential.”
“We are proud to support Urban-Air Port in its launch and future ambitions. Innovation is at the heart of what we do at Nestlé and it’s only by collaborating and partnering with exciting initiatives like this one that we will meet our wider goals of getting to net zero. It’s essential for product delivery and travel to be more sustainable, and we look forward to working with UAP to play a part in making this a reality.”
Nestlé – Nestlé is the world's largest food and beverage company. With more than 2,000 brands, ranging from global icons to local favourites, the company is present in 191 countries around the world. The Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate’s products include baby food, medical food, bottled water, breakfast cereals, coffee and tea, confectionery, dairy products, ice cream, frozen food, pet foods, and snacks. The company will be at Air One showcasing its food and beverage products as a sponsor of the morning hospitality during the first 3 days. Dr Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability at Nestle UK&I, will also be participating in Urban-Air Port’s first Sustainability Panel Discussion on the 26th April.
Rituals – Rituals Cosmetics is a brand dedicated to sustainable and personal wellbeing in the beauty luxury industry. As a foremost founder of integrating bath, body and home care into a single portfolio, Rituals embraces the lifestyle of transforming everyday routines into more meaningful moments. Each product is inspired by an ancient tradition allowing you to find happiness in the smallest of things. With an expansive innovation portfolio in body care, home fragrances, natural skin care and home wear, Rituals invites the consumer to enrich their world with wellbeing moments. Founded in Amsterdam in 2000, Rituals has since been established as a global industry expert in over 36 countries present in vibrant cities such as London, Paris and Hong Kong with more than 900 stores, 3000 shop-in-shops and 5 body spas. Dedicated to its Clean, Conscious and Caring approach, Rituals is a proud Certified B CorporationTM. As part of Rituals’ commitment to continuously improve its social & environmental impact, the brand is focused on 90% natural origin formulas and packaging that’s either refillable, recyclable or made of recycled material. Next to that, Rituals is an avid supporter of 3 charities. In a world of luxury brands, Rituals aims to be the forerunner in the luxury standard of bringing beauty and wellbeing together in a sustainable future. For more information, please visit www.rituals.com
Henkell Freixenet – Henkell Freixenet is the German-Spanish alliance of the family-owned companies Henkell, based in Wiesbaden, Germany, and Freixenet, based in Sant Sadurni D’Anoia, Spain. The company is the world’s leading sparkling wine producer and has a unique portfolio of brands for sparkling wine, still wine and spirits. Global brands such as Freixenet, Mionetto and Henkell are part of the group, as well as I heart Wines, Mangaroca Batida de Côco and a portfolio of multiple award-winning wineries and brands. Henkell Freixenet is leading the category of sparkling wine in the GTR-sector (source: IWSR 2020 data, Sparkling Wine). Henkell Freixenet will be providing drinks and sponsoring an evening reception on 25th April at Air One.
Andreu World – A contemporary design furniture company for home, office, hotels, restaurants and corporate spaces, with more than 65 years as a family business. The company prides itself on quality craftsmanship whilst remaining faithful to sustainability, using 100% FSC-certified wood, from reforested forests. Some of Andreu Worlds’ stunning furniture will be showcased at the Air One event.
For more images and/or more information, contact:
Lewis Evans
Head of Communications, Urban-Air Port Ltd
Lewis.evans@urbanairport.com
About Urban-Air Port Limited
Urban-Air Port Limited designs, develops, manufactures, sells and operates ground, air and digital infrastructure for new forms of sustainable urban air transport such as air taxis and autonomous delivery drones. Its mission is to remove the largest single constraint to sustainable air mobility – ground infrastructure – In order to create a zero-emission-mobility ecosystem that will significantly cut congestion and air pollution from passenger and cargo transport. Urban-Air Port is recognised as a world leader in the Advanced Air Mobility sector, with plans to deliver over 200 vertiports across the world in the next five years – ultra-compact, rapidly deployable, operations hubs for manned and unmanned vehicles providing aircraft command and control, charging/refuelling, and cargo and passenger loading. Its world-first Air-One project in Coventry City Centre will be operational from April 2022. The company is backed by UK Government and major international partners, including Supernal. Urban-Air Port’s team of innovators, aeronautical engineers and aerospace experts have worked at companies including Airbus, Foster + Partners, Arup, JP Morgan, Knight Frank, British Aviation Group, Qinetiq and Uber, and in the UK Defence Sector. Visit www.urbanairport.com for more information and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
