Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2026

Above: Valentina Ellison, co-founder and CEO of Evolvending, says her company’s strategy of partnering with globally recognized restaurant chains has counteracted some traveler skepticism about fresh food vending.

The automation is visible, but the operation behind it is not. Evolvending, a leader in automated dining across U.S. airports, runs licensed commissary kitchens, employs full-time team members and maintains rigorous food safety and quality standards across its portfolio. For CEO and co-founder Valentina Ellison, the technology is only part of the story. “Our teams prepare products, restock kiosks throughout the day, monitor inventory and ensure every location operates smoothly. The technology reduces the labor required to serve guests, but there’s still a dedicated team behind every successful location.” Managing inventory at the end of a sell cycle requires the same discipline as any food service operation. At Farmer’s Fridge, any unsold inventory nearing the end of its shelf life is proactively removed to maintain quality standards. “Whenever possible, those meals are donated through local food recovery partners,” Saunders says. “Compared to traditional operators, we have much greater visibility into inventory performance by SKU and location, which helps reduce overproduction and waste overall.” Building Traveler Confidence Traveler skepticism is the most persistent barrier to adoption, operators say. They are overcoming this perception by partnering with globally recognized restaurant chains. “The biggest friction point is getting travelers to realize this isn’t traditional vending,” said Ellison. “We’re serving products from brands they already know and trust, prepared using the same technology and recipes they

enjoy elsewhere. Airports can be stressful environments, so recognizable brands like White Castle, California Pizza Kitchen, and Wow Bao create an immediate sense of confidence. Once guests try the product and experience the quality, repeat purchases come naturally.” To gauge whether a location is working, Ellison tracks sales volume, capture rates and customer feedback. Those metrics tend to improve as brand familiarity builds and travelers move from cautious first-timers to regulars. She says that more national brands are approaching Evolvending to explore how their platform can help them reach travelers in new and innovative ways. Whether these machines eventually become as ubiquitous as a standard travel essentials store is a question the industry is still answering. Alan Gluck, principal consultant for the global airports’ commercial service line at ICF , expects something between a niche product and a wholesale transformation. “I think vending machines will become far more common than they are now,” he says. “I do not see the U.S. or Canada leading the implementation of fully

Above: Evolvending has made significant inroads into airport over the past several months, offering recognizable brands as part of its vending mix (installations at RSW and BOS pictured).

24 / 7

automated units or food courts. They may allow staffed concessions to condense their hours as the machines make high quality food and drinks at all hours. But I do not see an airport with only vending machines.” Airports are treating these machines the way they once treated self-checkout kiosks in retail, as a complement to existing infrastructure that earns more real estate as it proves itself. Early adopters are already expanding their deployments based on sales data, and the pipeline of brands willing to test the format keeps growing. That balance – machines and staffed concessions working in parallel – may be exactly where airports are headed. What the best of these units offer is a reliable, quality option for the passenger who just wants a hot meal and a departing gate, at whatever hour the flight demands.

39

AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2026