Editor’s Note: Airport Experience News launched the ACDBE of Distinction awards in 2024 to honor small, Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprises-certified firms that excel in their field. The program continues this year. Onsite Retailers, owned by Sandy Roberts and Terri Roberts, is among four winners for 2025.
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It was a fortunate seating assignment at a luncheon decades ago that led Sandy Roberts, president and CEO of Onsite Retailers, to hit it off with a Hudson Group executive. Years later, that meeting has led to extensive mentorships, partnerships and growth across airport concessions, marked by several businesses and multiple locations.
Today, Sandy and Vice President Terri Roberts co-own Onsite Retailers and manage around 30 brands across dozens of airport locations in 11 airports, with another airport to be added soon. They say their journey from newcomers to veterans was fueled by strong relationship-building and a commitment to collaboration in the airport space.
Onsite made its entry into airport concessions at a time when Sandy and Terri Roberts were looking to branch beyond an earlier wholesale supply business. As a lawyer by trade, Sandy Roberts says he leveraged a connection with another attorney to attend the luncheon that placed him at the right time and place alongside a Hudson executive.
That chance meeting led to a joint venture with Hudson in 2004, bidding for a contract at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). By 2007, the co-owners launched their flagship independent store at BWI, Onsite News & Gifts. “It was kind of unheard of for an ACDBE to compete against some of the primes,” Terri Roberts says.
Expansion and Adaptation
Backed by Sandy Roberts’ experience in law and Terri Roberts’ diverse retail leadership background, the co-owners have expanded to several airports past BWI to include Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and others.
Like many small businesses, at the start, a key challenge was access to capital, Sandy Roberts says. But over the years, long-term relationship building has made it easier. “Building in an airport is not cheap – lots of rules, lots of regs, everything’s expensive. The rates are high… the whole process of getting a store open requires a lot of capital… that a lot of folks don’t have,” he says. “You really have to work on building those relationships with the prime, with your lender, with everybody.”
Derryl Benton, chief development officer for Avolta North America, says Sandy and Terri Roberts are longstanding Hudson partners who embody partnership and operational excellence. “We are tremendously proud to work with them at numerous airports across the U.S.,” says Benton. “Throughout our partnership, they have continuously flexed to meet diverse airport needs and have proactively engaged other small businesses and vendors to participate in airport opportunities, lifting up local entrepreneurs to help them grow in our industry.”
The co-owners say Hudson was an important mentor, especially in the early days of operation. “We started as neophytes in this business,” Terri Roberts says. “Dealing in the airport environment is a totally different animal.”
Now with nearly two decades of experience in airports, Onsite Retailers is diversifying. Since 2021, the owners have sought to expand into food and beverage alongside retail in-line with changing airline offerings and passenger preferences. Their travel convenience stores carry a larger selection of grab-and-go options while new expansions focus even more on food, they say.
Sandy Roberts notes that diversifying is especially important: “I promised myself I wouldn’t be pigeonholed into one brand. I want the benefit of having some diversification where if one brand is struggling, it’s offset.” Recent ventures on the West Coast have showcased the Roberts’ focus on collaboration. In 2021, Onsite Retailers joined four other minority and ACDBE operators to form Concord Collective Partners, which now serves as the prime operator for 12 dining concepts at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Meanwhile, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), CCP has partnered with another larger operator on 16 additional F&B locations.
Mentoring the Next Generation
With their beginnings as mentees under Hudson, the co-owners have expanded extensively across airport concessions. Throughout their journey, they’ve made mentorship and collaboration a cornerstone of their business; these days, the pair say they’re trying to continue the cycle.
“We try to make it a point to mentor other operators,” Terri Roberts says, noting the goa is to “show them the ropes and make sure they don’t hit the same bumps in the road that we had to hit.”
As Onsite Retailers looks to the future, its leaders say they are focused on growing and diversifying their offerings across new airports.
Sandy notes the growth in the F&B side seems to be coming at them “fast and furiously.” The pair continues to build their retail travel and convenience options, but food concepts are becoming an increasingly important part of the strategy.
For other operators looking to forge a similar path, Terri Roberts offered some encouragement: “We hope that other ACDBEs consider operating as independents,” she says, “or at least explore, or maybe partner with other smaller ACDBEs… to help them grow and not be afraid.”
