COPENHAGEN—Avec Freiestrasse, an innovative convenience concept operated by Valora, has won the prestigious 2025 NACS Convenience Retailer of the Year Europe award. The award, presented this week at the NACS Convenience Summit Europe in Copenhagen, recognizes the store's innovative "The Kitchen" food concept and its digital transformation.
Valora’s Avec Freiestrasse store has set a new standard for digital transformation in the convenience retail industry, making it a deserving winner of the 2025 NACS Convenience Retailer of the Year Europe award.
"The industry has seen impressive advancements in digital retail solutions, particularly with the growth of foodservice over the past two decades,” said NACS President and CEO Henry Armour. "Valora has shown an intelligent approach to combine manned and unmanned store operations while putting foodservice front and center to cater to a younger customer base that appreciates flexibility, locality and quality."
The store features “The Kitchen,” where fresh to-go meals are prepared on-site. This innovative concept blends high-quality, freshly prepared foods with the convenience of self-service retail. The menu includes a wide range of meal options such as pizza, chicken wings, hamburgers, meatloaf, and a notable selection of vegetarian and vegan options like durum falafel, veggie hot dogs, veggie burgers, hummus sticks, and couscous.
The store operates daily from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm, catering to university students, hospital staff, and local residents. On Sundays, the store transforms into a fully autonomous 24/7 concept, using the avec app for access, shopping, and payment.
Avec Freiestrasse features a mix of human and digital touchpoints, creating an integrated ecosystem that provides a seamless and intuitive customer journey. Customers can preorder and customize meals from “The Kitchen” with their mobile device or the in-store touchscreen kiosks. Payment is streamlined with self-checkout stations and the avec 24/7 app, which offers mobile scan and pay for fully autonomous purchases.
The avec store at Freiestrasse serves 1,600 customers daily and sells approximately 200 items from “The Kitchen.” Notably, 90% of net revenue is from food and beverages, the highest percentage achieved by an avec store.
The 2025 NACS Convenience Summit Europe is taking place May 26-28, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Next year, the event will take place June 2-6 in Warsaw, Poland. See more event information at convenience.org/CSE.