Robinson’s Multi-Tasking Approach
By Sarah Beling
Editor’s Note: Airport Experience News has launched the ACDBE of Distinction award to honor small, Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprises-certified firms that excel in their field. Shane Robinson, founder of S&C Robinson Enterprise, is one of six winners for 2024.
One could say that a deep knowledge of sales runs through Shane Robinson’s veins. Before he was the founder of Georgia-based concessions company S&C Robinson Enterprise, Robinson cut his teeth in the world of global mega-brands like AT&T, Home Depot, and Target.
“I have quite a colorful resume from a corporate career standpoint,” says Robinson. “If you asked me 25 years ago if I’d be doing what I’m doing now, I probably would have looked at you oddly,” he laughs. “I just didn’t see this on the horizon.”
After graduating from the University of Virginia with a degree in government affairs, Robinson was hired at AT&T, working in roles ranging from sales and maintenance to “irritating legislators” as a lobbyist, he says. “I pretty much ran the gambit with AT&T,” adds Robinson, “which is why, at some point, I got to the point of wanting to do something different, and I took a look at retail. The next thing you know, I’m running stores for Home Depot.” Robinson went on to manage multiple stores for the home improvement brand over his seven-year tenure, even opening a new store on the same day his first child was born. “I don’t do anything on ‘easy’,” he says.
Experiencing the breakneck pace of running large-scale retail was exciting, but exhausting. “I jumped on the treadmill on high,” Robinson says, “but I was ready to try a different experience.” Approached by a headhunter for Target in 2010, Robinson took a general manager position with his eye on grad school. While working for the retailer, he completed an MBA in business administration and management from Kennesaw State University.
But before he had even graduated, another unexpected opportunity presented itself. In 2010, the team at SSP America was in Robinson’s home city of Atlanta, exploring the market. Robinson found himself at dinner with the SSP team, who asked him if he’d ever thought about going into concessions. “I said, ‘Well, no,’ and they said, ‘Well, what would be your dream job?’” adds Robinson. “I said, ‘If you gave me a bucket of cash, I would love to start my own restaurant group and get the experts to do the work, or, just open my own bar and restaurant’ – and that started the conversation.”
In 2010, the team at SSP asked Robinson to partner with them on an RFP at Hartsfield- Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). The RFP didn’t work out, but in 2012, they reached out again about an opportunity at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)’s Terminal 4. Robinson partnered with SSP to launch Shake Shack and Dunkin’Donuts as S&C Robinson Enterprise, all while still working for Target.
Robinson left the retailer in 2016, and quickly began to expand his own company. He’s since partnered with SSP America on additional concepts at Sacramento International Airport (SMF) as well as concepts with HMSHost at Savannah/ Hilton Head International Airport (SAV), Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (CLT), San Diego International Airport (SAN), Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) and John Wayne Airport (SNA).
It’s Robinson’s commitment to relationship building with his fellow partner concessionaires, local chambers of commerce, airport management and financial institutions, that has kept S&C Robinson Enterprise fiscally successful. “We’ve had the same bank since we began, and we’ve been very intentional about making sure our debt structure is in line with what we’re doing,” says Robinson.
In the first years of the company, “I didn’t take a dime, I just kept working until the investment at JFK paid off,” he adds. “The bank has been with us [through it all]. They’ve seen the good, they’ve seen the bad, and they’re awesome partners, particularly when the checks stopped coming in for 18 months.”
Robinson’s innate sense of preparedness served him well even before the unexpected shutdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wanting to supplement his career, he took a client solutions role with AT&T, to complement his work with S&C Robinson Enterprise. “In light of what happened on March 14, 2020, it’s probably the smartest thing I could have done,” he says. Working “double duty” allowed him to wait out the concessions shutdown.
Robinson says he is now exploring airport retail concept opportunities in the travel essentials category, and potentially duty free as well. The company is also exploring the possibility of purchasing a restaurant franchise to own and operate. “I think this would resonate more with some of our prospective airports, as there seems to be some movement towards independent ACDBEs pursuing their own opportunities for space in airports,” he says.
For now, Robinson still lives a life doing “double duty” – managing S&C Robinson Enterprise while maintaining his position at AT&T. His oldest child,born on the day of his Home Depot store opening, is off to college in the fall. And he still loves retail. “I love the ‘people business,’” he says. “People, product, and process.”
