Airport Experience® News - ACDBE & Small Business Issue 2024

Forward Steps The collaboration was fruitful, and eventually, Lor left his law job to run Aero Service Group full-time. Lor brought on business partner Binh Le (a fellow refugee, in his case from Vietnam) in 2008. Ranum became the company’s CMO and Helman the company’s COO. Aero bids directly on airport contracts and as a subtenant with prime concessionaires, depending on the opportunity, with preference for operating its own units. They opened additional concessions at MSP, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI), Des Moines International Airport (DSM), and eventually Nashville International Airport (BNA). “Growing outside of the MSP market is difficult and requires wonderful relationships, because no one can do it alone,” Lor says, emphasizing that the connections he had fostered in the company’s early years led to support as they bid in new markets. “We were blessed with the support of Mr. Ali, who helped us with opportunities in Des Moines and Baltimore,” he says. “We were then further blessed by our relationship with Fraport USA, who trusted us enough with an opportunity to grow with them at Nashville with the opening of Three Casks in 2022 and New Heights Cantina & Taqueria (coming in 2025).” Aero Service Group currently operates a wide portfolio of concepts as direct

AT A GLANCE NAME OF COMPANY: Aero Service Group HEADQUARTERS: St. Louis Park, Minnesota FOUNDER(S): Cheng Lor, Binh Le YEAR OF ENTRY INTO AIRPORTS: 2006 NUMBER OF AIRPORT LOCATIONS: 12 AIRPORTS: MSP, BWI, DSM and BNA

CONCEPTS OPERATED IN AIRPORTS: Three Casks, Stone Arch, Cocina del Barrio, Zona Cocina, Lake Wine, Portermill Crafthouse, Arugula & Rye, Friederich’s Coffee, Mill Supply Co., and Berk & Chesters FUTURE PLANS: Aero Service Group continues to look for opportunities to grow with airport partners who like working with ACDBE operators and share its mission, vision and values.

operators as well as subtenants with prime concessionaires, though the company’s preferred model is to operate its own units, Lor says. Aero’s concepts range from local favorites and trusted brands to the company’s signature, hyper-local craft breweries like MSP’s Stone Arch, the first of a series of locally themed bar/restaurants that now includes Three Casks (BNA) and Portermill Crafthouse (DSM). Opening a concept like Stone Arch gave the team “huge anxiety,” says Ranum of the challenge to create a high-volume, high quality brewery using only local purveyors. But with the help of the “amazing” Minnesota craft brewery industry, she adds, an impeccable dedication to detail (down to baking burger buns and slicing potatoes in-house), and the team’s collaborative spirit, the restaurant became so successful that they were able to customize the concept across other partner airports.

“We don’t do this on our own,” adds Lor. “It takes a whole group of people to really breathe life into an organization and breathe life into a concept. If you asked me, ‘what is the strongest attribute of Aero?’ [I’d say] it is culture and the team that executes it.” The holistic culture that Lor has fostered at Aero is reflected in the unusually long tenure of his colleagues, many of whom, like Ranum, Helman, and Le, have been with the company for more than 15 years. Whether it’s providing transit subsidies for employees to get to work or paying staff health insurance premiums while they were on furlough during the COVID 19 pandemic, Lor says that his guiding philosophy involves a deep understanding of the impact his company can make on someone’s life. It’s what drives him to keep going amid the myriad challenges in the industry. “When you have your purpose,” says Lor, “that will see you through dark and difficult times.” And now, years into a solidified career as a concessionaire, Lor’s experiences escaping the Killing Fields still shape his perspective as an entrepreneur. “In Cambodia we were dealing with life and death – literally – on an everyday basis,” he says. “You recognize that in life and in business, we are all going to make mistakes. We learn from them, we grow from them, and we all try to move to the next level,” he adds. “But unlike the Killing Fields, it is not life and death. That is a blessing that all of us have in this country and industry.”

Left: Three Casks at BNA is one of three signature, hyper local craft breweries operated by Aero Service Group.

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AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2024