At mindit Forward: Data & AI Transformation Lift Off, we welcomed Ioannis Zouroudis, Global Head for Commercial Applications and Integration at Avolta, one of the world’s leading travel retailers. Ioannis shared how Avolta (known to many historically as Dufry) is reshaping the travel experience through large-scale modernization, hybrid retail concepts, and AI that serves real customers in real time. The theme was simple and powerful: deliver value, measure it rigorously, and enjoy the craft of building systems that work at global scale.

Who Avolta is today

Avolta has grown through strategic acquisitions and mergers, including Hudson in the United States, building a footprint that blends travel retail and food & beverage into one networked experience. The company reaches travelers across dozens of countries, manages millions of catalog items, and operates thousands of stores ranging from walkthrough concepts and convenience formats to brand boutiques and specialized jewelry and watch locations. That commercial reach is matched by a public commitment to sustainability and to supporting local suppliers.

In short: blending retail and F&B creates a seamless journey for travelers, but scale only works when master data, integration, and governance are strong. Sustainability is no longer a slide in a deck; it is becoming a measurable engineering requirement that influences how platforms are designed and operated.

Hybrid concepts that change the journey

Avolta’s strategy is to make airports feel easier and more enjoyable. That shows up in hybrid store experiences and new formats that reduce friction: walkthrough general stores that meet natural footfall, brand boutiques that deliver depth, and food venues from cafés to restaurant bars. On the edge, grab-and-go and fully automated formats bring technology forward without removing human warmth.

The lesson: the store journey should be intentional and quick, with automation handling the repetitive parts. Format diversity can meet very different traveler needs without adding operational chaos, as long as design and data quality are treated as front-of-house features, not back-office chores.

Loyalty that centers on the traveler

Avolta’s loyalty program has attracted millions of members, with a roadmap to make benefits more meaningful across retail and F&B. The ambition is a single, trusted view of the traveler across channels and brands, so recognition and rewards follow the customer, not the silo.

What matters most: loyalty works when data is harmonized across touchpoints. Personalization is a form of respect, not a gimmick, and the roadmap should tie features to outcomes members actually notice, such as recognition, relevance, and time saved.

Destination 27: a strategy built on resilience

Ioannis described a multi-year plan often referenced internally as a destination goal, with four pillars: a travel experience revolution that makes the door-to-door journey calmer and more engaging, geographical diversification to spread risk and withstand shocks, an operational improvement culture that makes excellence repeatable, and sustainability metrics that quantify the footprint of everything from a database query to a store build.

Why it works: diversification protects customers and shareholders alike, culture enables scale more than any single platform choice, and sustainability belongs in the architecture phase, not as a retrofit. When these elements line up, resilience becomes a property of the system, not a lucky outcome.

The role of AI in connected, personal experiences

AI at Avolta is practical. It powers forecasting and assortment, staff enablement, loyalty personalization, and store automation that ties retail and F&B into one connected journey. The goal is not to show off models; it is to make better decisions faster and to help people on the floor deliver the right service at the right moment.

The takeaway: start with outcomes and then choose AI patterns that serve them. Put governance and observability in place before scaling models, and keep human teams in the loop so brand, privacy, and experience stay protected while the system gets smarter.

The Avolta x mindit.io partnership

The Avolta and mindit.io story began in 2015, stabilizing critical applications for what was then widely recognized as Dufry. From there, the collaboration expanded into data products, warehousing, analytics, and a robust integration layer that keeps platforms in sync. Today the teams are co-developing applications in new ways, raising the bar on speed, quality, and customer impact.

What that teaches us: stabilize first, then modernize, then co-create. Treat integration as a product so everything “ticks without hiccups,” and measure value where it is felt most: customer experience, resilience, and time to outcome.

Leadership notes worth repeating

Ioannis kept returning to three themes. People first, because an operational improvement culture starts within the team. Sustainability as a metric, not a mantra, including understanding the footprint of queries, pipelines, and AI usage. And courage, to think differently and push ceilings when co-developing the next generation of applications.

Three big lessons for global retailers

From silos to systems: blend retail and F&B, loyalty and operations, data and design, so travelers feel one journey rather than a series of disconnected handoffs.
From projects to products: own outcomes with roadmaps, SLAs, and clear KPIs; modernization is a steady march, not a big bang.
From pilots to platforms: standardize integration, governance, and security, then scale AI where it compounds benefits across the network.

How mindit.io can help

We partner with retailers and operators to build modern data foundations that harmonize sources and unlock personalization, modernize applications from monoliths to modular, observable ecosystems, and enable AI responsibly with governance, privacy, and measurable outcomes front and center.

Watch and explore

• Full talk by Ioannis Zouroudis

• mindit Forward recap hub with all sessions and articles.

Ready to explore your roadmap

If these themes map to your priorities, let’s review your current stack together, identify quick wins, and shape a path from idea to outcome that fits your business rhythm.

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