The 2025 NACS Convenience Summit Europe will take place from May 26 to 28 in Copenhagen, Denmark. One of the most interesting store operations in the city won’t be part of the store tours, but visitors can stroll through the airport and get a sense of a remarkable c-store success story.

At no other airport in the world is there a bigger number of 7-Eleven outlets than in Copenhagen. Operated by 7-Eleven licensee Reitan Convenience, there are now 11 7-Eleven stores and 89 7-Eleven vending machines at the airport. It is very hard for passengers not to observe the strong 7-Eleven branding as they move within Copenhagen Airport which is the largest airport in Scandinavia.

So why has Reitan Convenience gained such a strong position here? I met Jesper Østergaard in 2006, the year he became Reitan Convenience’s CEO in Denmark, and asked him to share some facts about this unique operation.

Magnar: Can you tell us a little about the last tender for the airport business and how “the 7-Eleven Airport” was born?

Jesper: Reitan Convenience Denmark has taken part in tenders in the airport before, but not won the whole convenience business. This time our appetite for winning was very high, as operating stores in the biggest traffic hubs is the core of our business. The very first airport store that we opened in 2005 was a kind of test. As our strategy has changed since then towards becoming a food destination, the airport became more and more important to us.

During recent years, the passenger volume from the low-price airlines has grown, giving us an increased business opportunity, since the service and food onboard these airlines is limited. We are now selling quite a lot of food and drinks for passengers to consume on their flight.

7-Eleven Denmark has earned a unique reputation for your fresh and healthy food offer, transforming the concept of a traditional convenience store selling a few foodservice products into a foodservice destination selling convenience store products. How did this come about?

A: Until 2012, there was a strict regulation of opening hours for retailers in Denmark. Before 2012, convenience stores and gas stations were among the few retailers that could be open 24/7/365. A big part of 7-Eleven’s sales at the time came from groceries, especially on Sundays and bank holidays. Beginning in November 2012, the legislation became more liberal and most grocery stores increased their opening hours and started operating seven days a week. 7-Eleven had to rethink its customer proposition and develop a new strategy.

Since then, also customer behavior and needs have changed—magazines, newspapers, books, etc. have declined strongly. However, customers will always be hungry and thirsty. Therefore, our strategy is now built around food, bakery and hot and cold beverages. The strategy change has been a long and challenging process new and different skills were required both in the stores and at the support office.

A: To go from having five stores there to becoming the main convenience operator as well as showing that we could be part of Copenhagen Airport’s goal of becoming the preferred airport in Northern Europe, and that we could contribute more than just paying rent.

A: In most of Reitan Convenience’s seven countries, the operational model is based on franchising. So is Copenhagen Airport. With 300 full- and part-time employees, 11 stores and 89 vending machines, this is a really big single franchise run by a very experienced franchisee.

A: Yes, the vending solutions were created for the airport. We also introduced a more advanced product range within foodservice. Also, due to the operationally challenging environment that an airport is, we had to work a lot with internal logistics and distribution of products from our warehouse to each location.

A: In Reitan Convenience, we did not really have any experience in vending. Some 7-Eleven markets (for example Thailand and Japan) had an existing vending business we looked at and got inspired from. Recently, we had also tested unmanned stores with technology from Instant Systems in Sweden. After thorough consideration, we decided to go for the same technology for our vending solution in the tender, focusing heavily on:

A: A very important strength for us is that the vending is operated by the same franchisee who has the responsibility for the physical stores. This means that the team is closely monitoring the vending machines all over the airport and can react fast to avoid sold-out situations and to make sure that everything looks clean and tidy.

We also developed small electrical vehicles with built-in fridges in order to be able to distribute fresh food around the airport within the very strict rules for health and food safety in Denmark.

A: Newspapers, magazines and books were also a major challenge. This category is still quite big in the Copenhagen Airport. In 7-Eleven nationally, this category has been declining dramatically over the last 10 years. The category was not new to Reitan Convenience … however, the internal knowledge had to be rebuilt. We formed an advisory board consisting of authors and people from that industry. There are now two bookstores in the airport called 7-Eleven Read & Fly.

A: Yes, all in all we are delivering in line with our sales expectations. However, vending has more transactions than predicted.

A: The food strategy in the airport is, as in the rest of the country, to focus on freshly made, healthier and sustainable choices.

A: Due to security and challenging access in general, everything is much more complicated in an airport compared to operating stores everywhere else. Building stores, product deliveries, etc. is not easy. And it is costly.

A: Yes, first of all, price increases from the time we submitted the tender until the time we established the stores and vending machines was a challenge. From an operational standpoint we have had a steep learning curve for our vending machines. The technology is sensitive to any kind of movements and what we did not consider is that the floor in an airport has tiny movements when big planes take off or land, so many adjustments were needed.

Operating more sites on airside [the portion of the airport that can only be accessed after going through a security checkpoint] and selling much more food and bakery than in any other store (apart from at the Copenhagen central railway station) also requires much more planning and detail. In hindsight, we should have allocated more space for production in various parts of the airport.

We will be looking into new ways of producing food and bakery on-site. Our long-term goal is to have a central kitchen, either within the airport or at least very close to it.

A: Overall, we are happy to see that Copenhagen Airport is doing great in terms of getting back to its pre-Covid level. The airport is attractive for both passengers and airlines. In the coming years, more and more airlines will be using Copenhagen Airport and the existing airlines are already introducing new routes. From an overall perspective, our 7-Eleven business in the airport is doing well and vending, as a new business area for us, is doing surprisingly well.

A: Well, we have learned that vending is not a dead business as long as you have an attractive product range, and you keep high operational standards. We are therefore considering vending opportunities outside the airport. Some vending machines have already been placed in hospitals where we already have physical stores. Copenhagen Airport is building for the future, and as they grow their number of passengers, we also hope to be able to grow together with them.

A: Apart from our great food stores, have a look at the various vending machines, both airside and landside. In some areas there are only one or two machines while other areas look more like a “vending island” with up to five machines plus coffee. The biggest 7-Eleven Read & Fly, which is near the B-gates at the airside of the main terminal, is definitely worth a visit.

A: I am traveling a lot myself, and every time I either leave or come back home, I get proud when I see our logo all over the airport. On board a flight I very often see other passengers eating our food products—that also makes me very proud.