Airport Experience® News - Conference Issue 2025

ONE-ON-ONE

Like with any growing company, there were milestones, long draws uphill and then plateaus. [Former CEO] Michael Svagdis came on in 2014, and he really brought the depth and breadth of being the CEO in large corporations . He helped us figure out how to go from being the $200 million company to the $500 million to the $700 million. Now today, we’re about $1.24 billion. It’s been a long journey with a lot of fantastic friends and relationships along the way.

WARD: As you take on this new role, what do you view as your biggest challenges? MURRAY: The pre-Covid industry… was predictable and dependable, and it’s become less so. Naturally, the pandemic wreaked havoc but coming out of the pandemic, there have been fits and starts too. The airlines have had to adapt and that’s caused some more challenges. We are in a business channel that, broadly speaking, is investing large capital sums

to build restaurants in a public building. We’re putting water and dish machines and gas lines and all kinds of stuff – that investment is something that might take us 10-plus years to actually get the benefit of and we can’t predict what the terminal’s going to be 10 years from now. That’s where the risk profile starts to go up a little bit. That part is challenging for us. We have a business model that isn’t perfect for the times. As labor costs and capital costs have radically increased, it is a challenge for everyone in the business. How do we adapt to this? We have to continue to think through ways to economically develop terminals and develop restaurants that are places people want to work and enjoy the experience. Also, the traveling public is changing all the time. What were trends during Covid are very different today, and we have to continue to evolve with those trends. I do think a lot of people in the restaurant world would think of our problems as first-world problems – we’re still in a place where we have consumers every day. There are a lot of benefits to our world and we’ve got to balance those with the challenges. WARD: Looking at SSP’s results the company performed well in the back half of 2024. Are things kind of stabilizing or turning around a bit from a profit perspective? MURRAY: I think the turn around would be pandemic-led, meaning that without the pandemic, there wouldn’t have been a turn around. The top line and bottom line growth of the company has been strong since 2012. I’ll go back to the statement that we use all the time: If you’ve seen one airport, you’ve seen one airport. We’re in a business that requires very high investment and strategic returns. The North American business is very strong and the global company is strong and getting stronger all the time. The value of the company is really predicated on two things: the contracts that we hold and the people who work here and their skills. There aren’t a lot of

Left: Pat Murray (pictured here in 2024) has presented and received numerous awards at the annual Airport Experience Conference.

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AX NEWS MARCH 2025