Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, where SSP America operates | Photo credit: SSP Group

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SSP America has appointed new Chief Operating Officer, Amanda Busby, to oversee the company’s 250-brand presence at airports in the US and Canada while driving growth and improving customer experience.
 
Busby joins SSP America from Red Robin Restaurant Company where she most recently served as Vice President of Operations overseeing a portfolio of 230 restaurants staffed by 15,000 team members and generating $670m annual revenues.
 
SSP America, part of UK-based SSP Group, operates prominent food and beverage brands across the US and Canada including Peet’s Coffee, Dunkin’, Camden Food Co., and Hard Rock Café.
 
In December 2021, SSP Group reported 2021 revenues of £834.2m ($112.9m), down 41.8% on 2020 and 70.1% on 2019.
 
Reflecting a gradual recovery in global passenger numbers following sustained pandemic disruption, SSP said passenger footfall had reached 53% of 2019 levels by the second half of 2021. This positive trend was initially led by its North America business and followed later in Continental Europe and the UK.
 
Nevertheless, SSP America’s revenues continued to fall in 2021, when the division earned revenues of £194.2m ($262.9m), down 29.4% on 2020 levels and 63.7% on 2019.
 
‘We saw a sustained improvement in domestic passenger numbers in the United States from early March onwards, and this trend, which coincided with the successful roll out of the vaccination programme across the United States, continued throughout the third quarter, where revenue averaged 41% of 2019 levels’, the company wrote.