Casual Dining Group to open Rapide at Inverness Airport
The Casual Dining Group (CDG) will open grab and go outlet Rapide at Inverness Airport in mid-September after signing a seven-year deal with the airport's owner.
The small, six-seat unit in the airport's airside terminal will serve ‘French food, fast' offering hot and cold baguettes, snacks, pastries and drinks.
Rapide will be the group's first standalone express site, which is not part of a larger restaurant.
CDG operates Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Las Iguanas and in 2014 it launched its first grab and go concept with Café Rouge at Victoria Place in London. It was followed with a second site at Euston Station last year.
The deal with Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), which owns Inverness airport, will see CDG feature locally-sourced ingredients on its menu such as salmon, smoked trout and dairy products including cheese.
Mark Nelson, CDG's managing director of concessions and international franchising said the group plans to look for other airport opportunities.
He said: "A grab and go outlet at a busy airport terminal is a perfect location from which to attract takeaway customers.
"The one at Inverness also helps us develop a presence in Scotland as we seek to open other express outlets north of the border, while at the same time looking at opportunities at major airports in England.
"And with each new grab and go site like this we're refining the Rapide idea, which sees us offer quality food and drink from units with very small physical footprints."
HIAL operates 11 Scottish airports and is owned by the Scottish Government.
CDG has more than 300 sites across the country.
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