Asia Duty Free magazine

TFWA WE OCTOBER 2012 • VOL 16, NO 4

KLIA ramps up p.18 Changi’s

perpetual motion p.34 L’Oréal launches luxury p.64 Diageo

drives growth p.82

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www.dutyfreemagazine.ca ASIA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING 3

Letter from the Editor

Despite a dampening of growth in key indicators such as passenger numbers,significant year-on-year gains in traffic and sales are still being made acrossAsia, and the industry is as driven as ever to continue doing what it can topush those statistics higher. A case in point: Kuala Lumpur InternationalAirport’s commercial tender for the nearly completed KLIA2 terminal.

Described as a “next-generation hub,” KLIA2 is due to open next April, and it’s attract-ing attention from operators who are understandably eager to get in on the new space.

When Malaysia Airports put food & beverage, retail and services concessions at KLIA2up for grabs, it must have been delighted at the response. In our interview with the com-pany’s Senior General Manager of Commercial Services Faizah Khairuddin, she tells usthat there was an overwhelming response to the tender briefing sessions, with over 1,600interested parties comprising retailers, F&B and services operators attending. Meetingswere conducted in phases, with 133 different opportunities present in total.

Things are also booming at Indira Ghandi International Airport in Delhi, India. Here,Delhi Duty Free Services (DDFS) is focusing on arrivals, with its new 50-square-meter store as well as a possible ice-cream concept.

DDFS is at work in departures too. The company just opened a 20-square-metercosmetics store dedicated to the MAC brand, and says its next expansion will come inthe form of two mobile sales units. “We’re hoping to get them into the piers,” says DDFSChief Executive Steve O’Connor, adding that they should be up and running soon.

“Running” is a good word for Changi Airport Group (CAG), the operator of Sin-gapore’s world-class air hub. CAG has set a torrid pace since it was formed three yearsago, spearheading a massive, multi-project development program at the airport.

According to CAG’s Executive Vice President of Commercial, Lim Peck Hoon,Changi’s continued success is all about change. The first project on the books is theplanning and construction of a new, larger fourth terminal. Terminal 4 will be designedto maximize efficiency and handle continued passenger traffic growth.

Construction of T4 will begin in 2013 and it is expected to be ready by 2017. In themeantime, though, it’s apparent from this issue that there are plenty of new developmentshappening in Asia to keep retailers and suppliers busy. No doubt at this year’s TFWA WEin Cannes, a show that attracts duty free executives from around the world, we’ll learneven more about how the industry in Asia plans to continue keeping up with travelersthat have a taste for luxury and, more importantly, are ready and willing to spend.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Kind Regards,

Hibah [email protected]

Watchthisspace

Asia Duty Free & Travel Retailing (ISSN 1360-9548) ispublished annually by Global Marketing CompanyLtd., 26 Pearl Street, Mississauga, Ontario L5M 1X2Canada. It is distributed in the following countries,states, regions and territories on the Asian continentand in the Pacific Rim: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan,Brunei, Cambodia, China, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam,Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macao,Malaysia, Maldive Islands, Myanmar, Nepal, NewCaledonia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Philippines,Saipan, Samoa, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka,Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarilyreflect the views and opinions of the publisher oreditor. October 2012, Vol. 16, No. 4. All rights reserved.Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part withoutwritten permission from the publisher. © 2012 AsiaDuty Free & Travel Retailing.

Asia Duty Free & Travel Retailing26 Pearl Street

Mississauga, Ontario L5M 1X2 CanadaTel: 1 905 821 3344; Fax: 1 905 821 2777

www.dutyfreemagazine.ca

PUBLISHERAijaz Khan

[email protected]

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT

EDITORHibah Noor

[email protected]

ASIA CORRESPONDENTP. Convery

[email protected]

CONCESSIONS, LIQUOR, & TOBACCO EDITORRyan White

[email protected]

ASSOCIATE EDITORMelissa Silva

[email protected]

ART DIRECTORPatrick Balanquit

[email protected]

LAYOUT & DESIGNJeff Zuk

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTORSAndrew Brooks

ADVERTISING SALES

ADVERTISING & MARKETING MANAGERKim Carrera

[email protected]

CIRCULATION & SUBSCRIPTION MANAGERDeepa J

[email protected]

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 7:55 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:22 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:23 PM

6 ASIA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING OCTOBER 2012

TFWA WE OCTOBER 2012 • VOL 16, NO 4 18

34 CHANGI AIRPORT GROUP

Perpetual motionSingapore’s Changi Airport has always been a stepahead, constantly changing its commercial proposition.Asia Duty Free reports on its latest moves

38 DUTY FREE PHILIPPINES

DFP celebrates a strong 25 years As Duty Free Philippines’ 25th year winds down, sales, renovations and new projects set the stage for the next 25

40 HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Hong Kong picks up the paceHKIA matches hefty traffic increases with a broad arrayof plans and projects

44 INFLIGHT SALES GROUP

Leading the wayInflight Sales Group is flying high with several newdevelopments, a flexible business strategy and newonboard products in the works

46 EXHIBITOR SPOTLIGHT

Showtime This year’s TFWA Cannes Exhibition welcomes aunique range of exhibitors to the tradeshow floor.Here’s what attendees can expect from a few of theindustry’s leading brands

10 IN BRIEFShilla boosts overseas expansion • Thai airport operatorholds off on awarding Don Mueang concessions •Philippine Airlines plans to open the country’s largestairport • Godiva adds the Coeur Iconique to itsbestselling Gold Collection • Singapore Airlineslaunches US$50 million inflight connectivity program

18 MALAYSIA AIRPORTS

Love me tenderRetailers have more than a crush on Malaysia Airports’latest batch of commercial contracts as the airport operatorramps up its operations in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere

24 DELHI DUTY FREE SERVICES

A growing concernDelhi Duty Free has gone from strength to strength sinceit set a new benchmark in Indian travel retail at thecapital’s airport. And things can only get better

28 NUANCE-WATSON (HK)

Fighting spiritNuance may have lost the battle for Hong KongInternational Airport’s coveted concessions, but it’slooking to win the retail war on other fronts

30 TASA MENG

Development drivenTasa Meng’s hard work and strategic investments arepoised to pay off

32 CATHAY PACIFIC

Duty free at your doorstepWith its passenger-focused approach, Cathay Pacific isincreasing the convenience of its inflight sales services,while decreasing its carbon footprint

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 7:56 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:23 PM


Contents

8651

76 LIQUOR REPORT

Leading with luxurySome big name spirits suppliers discuss the importanceof developing luxury and limited edition offerings for theAsian traveler

82 DIAGEO GTME

Driving growthAsia Duty Free speaks with Managing Director of DiageoGTME Roland Abella about the company’s performancein FY2012 and what’s to come over the next 12 months

84 ORBIS AGED WORLD WHISKEY

An international brandAfter recognition from Ian Buxton and some noteworthyNorth American listings, Orbis World Whiskey is ready totackle its target market of Asia duty free

86 PERNOD RICARD ASIA DUTY FREE

Next-level prestige Asia Duty Free speaks with Pernod Ricard Asia MarketingManager John O’Sullivan on Martell and the release ofThe Ultimate Jewel and the Architect Edition

88 BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO

Exceeding expectationsBritish American Tobacco’s business in Asia ischaracterized by a concentration on innovation with theend goal of exceeding consumers needs

49 SPECIAL REPORT: WATCHES

51 WATCH REPORT

If the price fits…These timepiece brands take on the vibrant Asian marketwith carefully calibrated pricing strategies

54 FRÉDÉRIQUE CONSTANT

Staying power Already boasting a strong inflight and airport presence,Frédérique Constant is on the hunt for new partners andmarkets

56 MISAKI

Cutting edge Misaki targets the Asia market with a sharp, shark-inspired collection

62 SWAROVSKI

Branding up, branching outSwarovski: new brands and new men’s products drivesuccess in travel retail

64 L’ORÉAL GROUP

Launching luxuryL’Oréal Luxe builds Asian success with an aggressiveschedule of new product launches

68 SHISEIDO

Skin supremacy Shiseido’s on a roll in Asia as it zeroes in on a newpremium-friendly consumer demographic

70 COLORFUL LICENSES

The right turnA major career shift 15 years ago led to Colorful Licenses’current success

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:24 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:25 PM


In BriefShilla Duty Free, South Korea’s second-biggest duty free retailer,has announced that it will launch a second overseas outlet at Sin-gapore’s Changi Airport early in 2013.

Shilla, the travel retail arm of giant conglomerate Samsung Group,said it will operate the second overseas store for three years

from January at Changi Airport’s Terminal 3.Last month, Shilla Duty Free won a

contract to operate itsfirst over-

seas store for three years from December at the Singaporean hub.“Our stores at Changi Airport will pave the way for us to tap

into the Southeast Asian duty free market,” a Shilla spokesmansaid. “We will be more aggressive in expanding the number of ouroverseas stores.”

Shilla Duty Free’s move follows larger rival Lotte Duty Free’sopening of its first overseas store at Soekarno-Hatta Interna-tional Airport in Jakarta, in February, and the opening of its sec-ond overseas outlet at the Changi Airport’s T2 in May.

State-owned airport operator Airports ofThailand (AOT) has still not named the win-ners of its tenders for duty free and other retailat Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport, eventhough the airport is due to reopen in a mat-ter of weeks.

AOT plans to reopen Don Mueang onOctober 1, but says some bidders’ propos-als are not workable.

After an extraordinary board meeting onSeptember 4, AOT Chairman Sumet Photi-manee said there had been no decision onthe bids.

Sumet said: “We have to compare all theinformation on hand with the terms of refer-ence to see whether the bidders’ proposalsare feasible.”

He said AOT will speed up its evaluation

of the bids for the airport’s commercial areaoperations, adding that that process shouldbe complete by mid-September.

The Mall Group submitted the highest-priced bid, offering AOT minimum revenueof 16.7 million baht (US$536,770) per monthand to install sales-checking machines.

Sumet said that King Power had offeredAOT the highest duty free bid, promising 63million baht monthly—20 million baht morethan the next highest bidder. But he addedthat AOT needed to examine the retailer’s pro-posal further.

“If the bidder cannot follow the contract,AOT will be put at risk,” he explained. “Wedo not consider only high benefits. The com-pany’s risk is our risk. If it cannot follow theproposed plan, what would we do? We insist

that there is no political issue and we will hurryup with our decision before the full openingof the airport, scheduled for October.”

AOT expects 3 million international pas-senger arrivals into Don Mueang Airport. KingPower’s proposal is worth up to 756 million baht(US$24.5 million) a year, which means theretailer’s annual sales at the airport would haveto be in the region of 5-6 billion baht (US$160-$195 million). AOT is asking for more clarificationof the numbers from King Power.

King Power pays AOT 2 billion baht (US$65million) a year for its duty free contract atSuvarnabhumi Airport, which handles 36 mil-lion international passenger arrivals annually.

The duty free area at Don Mueang measures1,100 square meters and the remaining com-mercial space covers 2,700 square meters.

Thai airport operator holds off on awarding Don Mueang concessions

South Korea’s second-biggest duty free retailer is keen to add to its already formidable presence at homewith store openings abroad, and is determined not tolet its larger rival Lotte, steal a march on it

Shilla boosts overseas expansion

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:25 PM

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In Brief

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Singapore Airlines is formally launching inflight connectivity as part ofa US$50 million program to bring Internet and mobile data servicesto customers, even when flying at 35,000 ft.

Following a recent soft launch on a limited number of aircraft, inflightconnectivity is available on 14 aircraft in the fleet, including all five Air-bus A340-500s which are deployed on the world’s longest non-stopflights, between Singapore and both Newark and Los Angeles. Ser-vices have also been extended to more markets such as Australia, forwhich regulatory approvals had not previously been obtained.

Travelers can surf the Internet, send and receive emails on smart-phones and other electronic devices, and send and receive SMS textmessages with GSM-compatible mobile phones. (Mobile data andtext services are not yet available on A380s).

Through a partnership with leading connectivity provider OnAir, thetechnology will be progressively rolled out across all of SIA’s long-haulAirbus A380-800, A340-500 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft over thenext two years.

Services are offered on routes on which equipped aircraft aredeployed, subject to regulatory approvals from individual countries. Amap highlighting availability when flying over specific countries ispublished in the airline’s KrisWorld inflight entertainment magazine.

Just in time for TFWA WE in Cannes,Godiva has announced the additionof the Coeur Iconique to its Gold Collection.Billed by Godiva as perfect for gifting or treating oneself, the CoeurIconique’s box is a blend of Art Nouveau and straight-from-the-runway fashion, bringing to life both Belgium’s design and choco-late heritage.

The heart-shaped box, which features a delicate cut-out lacedesign, is created by using innovative laser-cutting techniques.Inside are six of Godiva’s most iconic chocolates, the deliciousheart-shaped Coeurs. These charming chocolates are filled withGodiva’s renowned signature creamy smooth praline and coatedin white or milk chocolate, or covered in dark chocolate with adelicious ganache filling made with 70% dark chocolate from PapuaNew Guinea.

Visitors to this year’s TFWA WE can learn more about the CoeurIconique or the rest of Godiva’s range of chocolates at YellowVillage F33.

Godiva adds the Coeur Iconique toits bestselling Gold Collection

Coeur Iconique holds six of Godiva’s

most iconic chocolates

Singapore Airlines launchesUS$50 million inflightconnectivity program

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Philippine Airlines plans to open the country’s largest airportPhilippine Airlines (PAL), has announcedplans to build what might be the largestairport in the Philippines, reports Philip-pine Daily Inquirer. This news comesshortly after the flag carrier signed amultibillion-dollar deal to acquire 50 newplanes, which is reportedly the biggestaircraft order in the country’s history.

Reports state that the planned air-port would be equipped to handle fourtimes as many flights per hour as the con-gested Ninoy Aquino International Airport(Naia) in Pasay City. Naia, which wasbuilt in the 1950s, has been often labeledas outdated and can handle only 36flights per hour.

PAL President Ramon S. Ang report-edly said investments in infrastructure waspart of the company’s aggressive expan-sion program, which could include rehir-ing some of the 2,600 employees PALretrenched in October 2011.

The report states that Ang hopes the

government will support the company’splans for the new airport, which herevealed would be closer to Manila thanthe Clark International Airport in Pam-panga, which the government is reno-vating to replace Naia.

Ang, who also serves as President ofPAL’s controlling shareholder San MiguelCorp., has not yet disclosed the prospec-tive location for the new airport, but didreveal that 2,000 hectares of land arerequired for the project.

The new airport will be exclusive to PALand sister firm PAL Express (formerly AirPhilippines), and will have two parallel run-ways when it opens, with the option ofhaving two more. Parallel runways allowfor two planes to take off and land simul-taneously, which is not feasible withNaia’s perpendicular runways.

Ang reportedly said the government’splan to turn Clark into the country’s pre-mier gateway might be not be ideal given

the facility’s distance from Manila.He said plans to build a new high-

speed railway between Metro Manilaand Clark—at an estimated cost of US$10billion—would be too burdensome forthe government.

Ang revealed that the company wouldcontribute approximately US$500 mil-lion in equity for the airport project andfinance the rest of the cost by usingloans from foreign or local banks.

The report states that the companyplans to pitch the project to PresidentAquino in January or February. Accord-ing to Ang, once building is approved bythe government, the new airport shouldbe completed in three years.

In closing, the report states that Angbelieves the new airport combined withother components of PAL’s expansioncould solve labor problems that havedisrupted the airline for more than 10years.

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:27 PM

SECRET MISSION

S E P A R A T E S T H E M E N F R O M T H E B O Y S

b a l d e s s a r i n i - f r a g r a n c e s . c o m

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:27 PM

Top Story: KLIA


It’s a good indication of rosy prospectswhen an airport commercial tenderattracts plenty of bidders. So whenstate-owned airport operator Malaysia

Airports put retail, food & beverage andservices concessions at Kuala LumpurInternational Airport’s “KLIA2” terminalup for grabs, it must have been delightedat the response.

KLIA2 – which Malaysia Airportsdescribes as its “next-generation hub” – is dueto open next April, and retailers are clamoringto get a foothold in the new facility.

Malaysia Airports Senior General Man-ager of Commercial Services Faizah Khairud-din says: “Malaysia Airports received anoverwhelming response to the tender brief-ing sessions, with over 1,600 interested par-ties comprising retailers, F&B and servicesoperators attending. That response was due

to Malaysia Airports’ new concept of inno-vative retailing at KLIA2.

“Tender briefings were conducted inphases, with 133 different opportunitiesmade available,” Khairuddin explains. “Phaseone was conducted in December 2011, phasetwo at the end of February and into earlyMarch 2012. Phase three went ahead inApril and phase four in May. The first, sec-ond and third phases involved 27, 39 and 37tenders, respectively. The fourth phase provedto be most exciting, with 30 tenders com-prising individual lots as well as packagedeals. In all, 161 outlets have been tenderedfor the first day of operations at KLIA2.

“The categories and concepts are diverseto enhance the customers’ journey throughthe terminal,” she says. “The offerings atthe public concourse area complement theoverall experience for travelers, well-wish-

ers and visitors at KLIA2. This area willhave more F&B-centric offerings, [with] awide array of F&B concepts and brands,fast-food outlets, lifestyle cafes, casual din-ing restaurants and grab-&-go counters,offering a good range of local and interna-tional fare. The retail offerings will caterfor travel-retail basic needs such as pharmacygoods and beauty & wellbeing products, aswell as a bit of luxury, with chocolates & con-fectionery, perfumes & cosmetics and fash-ion accessories.”

Khairuddin says travelers will start theirjourney through the airport as “retail explor-ers”, beginning at the public concourse area,and that they will move on to more varietyand choice as they make their way throughthe airport. She says the terminal will boasta walk-through duty free emporium, a fash-ion street and gallery, island concept eater-ies that allow F&B to mingle with retail, adedicated food court, a spa, relaxation andentertainment facilities, and television andmovie lounges. Additionally, she explains,there will be a generous range of retail andF&B offerings at each pier of the terminal.

“The arrivals hall airside area will feature

LovemeRetailers have more than a crush on Malaysia Airports’latest batch of commercial contracts as the airportoperator ramps up its operations in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere BY P. CONVERY

Brands such as Kiehl’s,Anna Sui and Bobbi

Brown are available inKLIA’s Satellite Building

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:28 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:28 PM

Top Story: KLIA


a duty-free haven,” she adds, “and the land-side area will offer local flavors and an expe-riential retail gallery.”

Khairuddin says Malaysia Airports net-ted a good mix of proposals from local andinternational players and that it issued thefirst batch of awards to successful phaseone bidders in early July. The concessionsawarded so far have been mainly for thepublic concourse area of the terminal’sdepartures level.

“Travelers and visitors will be able toshop at Cocoa King, The Body Shop, CarloRino and Spirit of Asia, as well as to explorebeauty and health at Beauty Express andMyLife Healthcare,” she explains. “The din-ing concepts vary to cater to the needs ofour travelers. There will be a choice ofcasual dining restaurants – namely Pap-paRich Express, Bumbu Desa, The Libraryand even The Loaf. Coffee lovers will bedelighted to know that Starbucks Coffee isamong the offerings. Additionally, cus-tomers will also have a choice to grab acuppa at Chatime or simply enjoy a cool,revitalizing drink at the outlet.

“For those in a rush, we have a selectionof grab-&-go concept outlets such as Dunkin’Donuts and Malaysian Delights. Alterna-tively, passengers will be able to savor delec-table delights in a healthy way at Chinesedesert shop Hui Lau Shan. Also in the lineupis Heng Heng Local Delights, which offers

an array of specialties from the variousstates in Malaysia, giving travelers and vis-itors a taste of authentic local delicacies.”

Malaysia Airports may have had its handsrather full with developing and tenderingKLIA2, but all that work certainly hasn’tcome at the expense of other areas of the cap-ital’s international hub.

In KLIA’s Contact Pier Domestic, it’sbeen rolling out new brands including Mont-blanc, Charles & Keith, Rolex, Michael Kors,Tumi and Swarovski. It’s also openinganother Victoria’s Secret boutique.

In the airport’s Satellite Building, whichhandles international passengers, the lineupof new brands includes newsagent/bookstorechain WHSmith, Lonely Planet, Billabong,Bijoux Terner, Pandora, Giordano, Swarovskiand a watch boutique named From Time toTime and operated by Eraman Malaysia,Malaysia Airports’ retail arm.

Malaysia Airports has also been rampingup retail at the country’s smaller internationalairports, of which there are four.

“At Penang International Airport, amongthe categories that will be made available arepharmacy products, books & magazines,telecoms and a convenience store for the pub-lic concourse in the departure hall,” saysKhairuddin. “The arrival hall’s public con-course will boast a range of Asian and localspecialty cafes and restaurants, and tele-coms services. The airside area will provide

an array of product offerings ranging fromduty-free indulgences to souvenirs and col-lectibles, costume jewelry, fashion acces-sories, body care and a children’s boutique.Additionally, there will be lounges and health& relaxation centers.”

At Kota Kinabalu International Airport,Malaysia Airports has opened Marrybrownand Apron Bites F&B outlets, operated byEraman Malaysia. Eraman also has pres-ence in domestic departures, managing anemporium offering apparel, perfumes &cosmetics and fashion accessories.

“Another upcoming outlet will be ApronMache,” Khairuddin says. “It’ll be openingsoon in the arrival hall’s public concourse.Khazanah, which offers ethic yet very mod-ern and contemporary home furnishings,gifts, fashion and accessories, will also makea debut at Kota Kinabalu InternationalAirport.”

Underpinning all this activity is a con-certed push by Malaysia Airports to gener-ate annual revenues of M$3 billion (US$959million) by 2014, two-thirds of that total fromnon-aeronautical sources.

Khairuddin says: “[The potential for]development and growth in non-aeronau-tical performance is boundless,” adding thatit depends only on creativity in optimizingspace and other business opportunities.

She describes the thinking behind KLIA2,for instance, as creating “an airport withina mall”, designed with a strong commer-cial focus.

“That’s demonstrated through an increasein total terminal commercial space and retail

Faizah Khairuddin,Malaysia Airport’sSenior GeneralManager ofCommercial Services says the response to KLIA’s tender for retail concessions at its upcoming LCCterminal was “overwhelming”

Malaysia Airports hasfielded a diverse rangeof concepts andcategories to makeKLIA a memorableairport for travelers

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:29 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:29 PM

Top Story: KLIA

space,” she says, “as well as retail placement to maximize foot-fall and visibility.”

She explains that the development of KLIA2 is one elementof a four-pronged business development strategy, the other ele-ments of which are: boosting KLIA’s retail revenues overall;applying specific development templates to all 39 of the airportsrun by Malaysia Airports; and developing land around KLIA,including an “aerotropolis”.

All the indications are that the airport operator’s strategy ispaying dividends.

Khairuddin says Malaysia Airports’ commercial revenuesfor the first half of this year are 9.9% up on the same period in2011, outpacing growth in passenger traffic across its airports.And she says she’s looking forward to an even better result inthe second half of the year.

“The second half of the year always performs better than thefirst half,” she says “In the second half, we have stronger passen-ger growth due to holidays and festive seasons. It’s very much inline with trends among other retailers globally.”

She says Malaysia Airports is benefiting from the growthin passenger traffic from mainland China that other airportsand retailers in the Asia-Pacific have also enjoyed.

Khairuddin says that at KLIA, the only passenger group thatspends more than local Malaysians are the Chinese mainlanders.

“The Chinese market accounts for approximately a 20%share of the total retail spend at KLIA,” she explains. “Asidefrom liquor, Chinese travelers are also very keen on luxurygoods,” she says, adding that Malaysia Airports is actively tar-geting them.

“We have an array of high-fashion brands available at KLIA,such as Burberry, Hugo Boss, Hermès, Salvatore Ferragamo, Dun-hill, Bvlgari and Montblanc. We are constantly introducingmore new brands and concepts to KLIA.”

If Malaysia Airports’ track record so far this year is anythingto go by, that’s certainly no exaggeration. c

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Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:29 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:29 PM


It may have been a steep learning curvefor Delhi Duty Free Services (DDFS) atIndira Gandhi International Airport’sTerminal 3, with logistical issues loom-

ing largest among the obstacles to over-come. But the retailer has shown greatresilience and a deftness of touch since itopened for business just over two yearsago, and is now firmly on a growth path.

“Our financial year started in April, andfor the past three months our sales are wellup on last year – 13% higher than 2011,” saysSteve O’Connor, Chief Executive, DDFS.“From January [2011] to January [2012]we’re up 33% on the previous year.”

“All the categories are doing well,” hesays. “Confectionery has shown the biggestjump as a percentage, but it was pretty loworiginally. Liquor is a high-value, high-vol-ume business for us, so if we’re growing itat 1% or 5%, it’s the smallest percentage-pointgrowth, but the value is bigger. It’s the biggestpart of our business, so even if the growthis a few percent, it’s worth a couple of mil-lion dollars. And we’re growing it – partic-ularly in arrivals.”

One trend withinthe liquor categorythat O’Connor iskeen to encourage isgreater consumptionof white spirits.

“There’s quite alot in our pier outletsnow,” he says. “ButIndia’s mainly abrown spirit marketbecause it’s all to dowith the image. Sowhat we’re seeing is people looking for morepremium spirits as they look for differenti-ation from your standard buyers, andyounger affluent travelers moving into vod-kas and premium vodkas as well.

“Again, it’s a differentiation, but in thiscase it’s one between old and new. We don’talways want to be drinking what our dadsdrank! When you’re in your early 20s, you’relooking to differentiate yourself from the oldman, so there is a move into liqueurs, andinto white spirits particularly.”

O’Connor also sees “huge” potential for

growing wine sales at Delhi. He says theunreliability of domestic suppliers – both interms of quality and authenticity – giveDDFS a natural edge over the downtowncompetition.

“The thing in India is that you don’tknow if wine has been handled correctly. Oneof the benefits of buying it in duty free is thatcustomers know it’s been handled properlythroughout the process in terms of storageand logistics, whereas downtown, peopleare reluctant to spend a lot on wine, and alot of our customers say to us that they buy

Delhi Duty Free

A GROWING CONCERNDelhi Duty Free has gone from strength to strength since it set a new benchmark in Indiantravel retail at the capital’s airport. And things can only get better BY P. CONVERY

Delhi Duty Free is keen to tap the strong potentialof the perfume and cosmetics category

Delhi Duty Free’s entry into India’stravel-retail market has been a game-changer for the Indian industry

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:30 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:30 PM

Delhi Duty Free


their wine in London, Dubai or other placesand bring it back. For us, the idea is to cap-ture that market, and to give them varietywithin the price point that they want.

“It’s a cultural thing, and it takes sometime to develop the market. We’ve seen it withmalt whiskies: if people have the variety,people start collecting and want to try dif-ferent ones, and it becomes a hobby.”

O’Connor says that fielding an adequaterange in any category is a vital means ofdriving sales, and that it’s no different forwine, even if many brands and bottles playa largely supporting role.

“We need to have the range there to givepeople the comfort factor,” he says. “It’s like

having a tank of watches – with most brands,two or three of the lines are the ones that aregoing to sell, but if you fill your tank withthose two or three, people will look and say,‘They’re all the same – there’s no choice’. Butif you put in another 60 watches – theymight be slow movers – but the consumerfeels they’ve had a choice.

“Wines in arrivals is the same – you haveto give customers the option even if they don’tspend time there browsing [different vari-etals and vintages], because they’ve justflown in and want to go home.”

Presenting the right range is somethingDDFS is also working on in the tea category,which O’Connor says is a big business withplenty of potential for growth.

DDFS is running a number of surveyswith different agencies over the next coupleof months to make sure it gets its tea propo-sition right. O’Connor says it’s vital for theretailer to identify its tea customers and besure that what it does corresponds withwhat they want.

“If it’s not, we can rejig it,” he says.DDFS is keen not only to focus on indi-

vidual categories, but also on lifting salesacross the breadth of its entire offer.

O’Connor says: “We’ve moved away a

little bit from brand promotions and goneforward with more generic promotions forall categories. So at the moment we’re giv-ing away a Mini Cooper. You spend US$50and you get a free raffle ticket for the car. Thatworks across all the brands, so we don’t seea spike in sales of just one particular line orsupplier, but growth across all categories.”

He also says another key to DDFS’s suc-cess has been its staff training, adding thatthe company’s headcount – currently 550 –will increase to more than 600 by year’s end.

“First, we work with the brands them-selves,” he explains, “so we have a lot ofbrand ambassadors and promoters dedi-cated to specific brands, and we train them

and brush them up on the knowledge.“Secondly, we do internal training in sell-

ing skills and cross-selling. We also share alot of information with our staff and we getother promoters to highlight their categoriesto other staff, so somebody on Pernod willbe talking to the perfumes and cosmeticspromoters, telling them what’s new. Thatmeans someone in perfume and cosmeticswill be aware of the launch of new products[outside their own category]. We’re always try-ing to link up and cross-sell internally.

“We’re a lot more attentive with staff andstaff training,” he says, “especially in arrivals,where we concentrate on speed in moving cus-tomers through the process, because they’retired and just want to get out of the airport.We make sure our staff there is very quick andvery attentive, and we’re adding more cash reg-isters in arrivals to support that.”

DDFS’s arrivals business accounts forabout 60% of its sales, and O’Connor saysthe retailer is bringing new brands intoarrivals that it doesn’t offer in departures.

“We’ve got almost 2,000 square meter ofspace in arrivals, and we’re looking to expandit,” O’Connor says. “We’re talking about thisto the airport right now.”

Perhaps influenced by The Nuance Group

(India)’s success with inbound electronicssales, he says DDFS has also submitted abid to start selling televisions in arrivals.

“We’re optimistically waiting to see whathappens,” he says. “It’s another string toour bow and could be a valuable add-on forthe consumer.”

Other plans that DDFS is focusing onin arrivals include a new 50 square meter storeand a possible ice-cream concept.

“We’re in the process of opening [the 50square meter store] in September,” O’Connorsays. “It’ll have all our main categories and willbe fairly generic in fixtures and fit-out, aswe’re looking to focus on brands and concepts– perhaps Pernod with a liquor shop, or Dia-

geo with a liquor shop, or maybe a winecellar. Or maybe with one of the perfumeand cosmetics brands doing somethingunique for women – perhaps a make-uparea. We’re trying to come up with some-thing different and iconic.”

And DDFS is growing its footprintin departures, too.

O’Connor says the company has justopened a 20 square meter cosmeticsstore dedicated to the MAC brand, andthat its next expansion will come in theform of two mobile sales units.

“We’re hoping to get them into thepiers,” he says, adding that they should

be up and running by the end of August.“We’ll have one in each pier and we’ll be

able to link them in to the busy gates. Andif that’s successful, we’ll look at putting oneinto arrivals. We can roam around as peo-ple are purchasing and maybe get impulsesales as well.”

However the global economy affectsIndian travel retail (O’Connor points out thateven a ratings agency’s recent downgrade ofthe country’s GDP forecast still saw it grow-ing at 5.5%), DDFS seems assured of a brightfuture at the capital’s hub airport.

“There’s nothing in India that isn’t goingto grow,” he says. “It’s just a matter of whenand how long you’re willing to wait and gothrough the process. We [Aer Rianta –O’Connor’s former employer] went intoQatar when they only had three planes. Nowlook at it. When we went into Dubai, peo-ple thought we were mad. But if you put thecommitment and the time in, you reap therewards down the line, because you build upthe relationships the confidence and thelocal knowledge, and it stands you in goodstead. There’s no opportunity that’s toosmall in India.”

And at Delhi’s T3, it seems, there’s noopportunity that’s too big. c

The retailer is expanding its alreadyspacious operations at Delhi airport,

adding new space and staff

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:30 PM

Asia-2012-October-v12 10/02/12 4:26 PM

Nuance-Watson (HK)


uance-Watson (HK) has man-aged two of the three core-cat-egory concessions at Hong Kong

International Airport (HKIA)since the hub opened in 1998, developing aworld-class duty-free offer and growing thebusiness to a value of around HK$2 billion(US$258 million) annually.

So it must have come as a shock a fewmonths back when the airport operator,Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK),announced that it had awarded those con-cessions to DFS, following a tender for allthree core concessions. And all the more soas Nuance’s Hong Kong operations wereamong the company’s most extensive, with18 licenses and 40 stores.

Nuance-Watson (Asia) Regional Man-aging Director Alessandra Piovesana says:“The management and the staff of Nuance-Watson (HK) are naturally disappointed bythe outcome of the core licenses tenders.Our determination to set the bar of perfor-mance higher and higher year after year andfulfilling our commitments [through] goodand bad times … led us to predict a muchdifferent outcome.”

Piovesana is understandably proud ofNuance’s achievements over the 14 years ithas held its concessions at HKIA.

“We have nurtured numerous successfulbrand partnerships, pioneered many inno-vations, market firsts and exclusives, [given]the categories … added value, new opportu-nities and revenue streams, serviced and sat-isfied millions of discerning customers, andearned over 91 industry awards and recogni-tions,” she says. “Most importantly, with thetwo concessions, we have developed and pro-gressed with the careers of 600 frontline andback-office staff, who have successfully grown

and overcome countless challenges with us.”Ever the pragmatist, Piovesana has been

quick to put the setback behind her andfocus on the future, noting that Nuance stillhas “substantial” business interests at HKIA,with 16 licenses, including audio-visual/elec-tronics, luxury brand boutiques and specialtystores in the airport’s Terminals 1 and 2.

And she says it will continue to operate itscore category stores under an extension grantedby AAHK until around the end of the year.

Piovesana says that, going forward,Nuance will concentrate on driving sales atits remaining outlets, and on boosting itsoperations at Singapore’s Changi Airport,where it manages 28 stores spread over anarea of about 5,500-square-meters.

“At Changi Airport, we have been largelyconcentrating on perfumes & cosmetics,” shesays. “But in 2010, we started to broaden ourretail business at Changi to cover fashion,accessories, luggage and leather goods.”

Besides P&C, Nuance-Watson Singaporenow has six fashion and accessories specialtystores selling a range of products, from lug-gage to leatherware, with brands includingBally, MCM, Samsonite and Victoria’s Secret.The company was also recently awarded theluxury brand-name concession for an Empo-rio Armani boutique in Changi’s T2.

“We view that as a major strategic step,”says Piovesana. “We hope to expand fur-ther and solidify Nuance-Watson (Singa-pore)’s general merchandise brand businessbeyond P&C in such a strategic location.”

Nuance operates two retail concepts atZhuhai Airport in southeastern China – ThePlaza and Watson’s Your Personal Store – andopened The Atrium department store at theVenetian Resort in Macau in 2007. Piovesanasays both are developing profitably.

“We’ll continue to foster each of theseoperations’ sustainability and competitive-ness by implementing exciting marketing andcommunication activities, as well as improv-ing the merchandise mix,” she says.

And she explains that Nuance is alsolooking to other Asian travel-retail marketsfor growth.

Piovesana says: “Nuance-Watson Asia iskeen to invest and expand its general mer-chandise offers in Asian airports by leveragingNuance-Watson (HK)’s skills and expertisein related categories, as well as the proven,strong vendor relations it has developed inthe past 14 years, managing 280 generalmerchandise brands in stores, boutiquesand specialty shops at HKIA.”

“Nuance-Watson Asia doesn’t excludeany opportunities that comply with ourstrategy,” she says. “We will set our priori-ties taking into account each opportunity’ssustainability, contribution to strengtheningour position in Asia and addition of valueto our business, while leveraging our skillsand developing new ones.

“As China continues its fast-track trans-formation into a more consumer-focusedeconomy, we will see steady improvementsin travel patterns and many more businessopportunities,” she explains. “Our stores inZhuhai Airport and at the Venetian haveboth set good benchmarks and models forus to evaluate other opportunities in China,and we remain keen to develop new busi-nesses elsewhere on the mainland.”

That kind of determination to succeedstood Nuance in good stead at HKIA and,as the retailer maintains its focus on growthelsewhere, it’s likely to stand behind futuresuccesses in Asia’s opportunity-rich travelretail market. c

T

Fighting spiritNuance may have lost the battle for Hong Kong International Airport’s covetedconcessions, but it’s looking to win the retail war on other fronts BY P. CONVERY

N

Nuance places a strong emphasis onincentivizing its sales force, with

initiatives such as its customerservice awards for the best

performing staff

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:30 PM

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Tasa Meng


Taiwanese duty free operator TasaMeng has been quite busy withinthe travel retail market over thelast two years, with a number of

developments and openings to report. It wasback in 2006 that the operator was granted a12-year extension in District D, Terminal 2of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport,where it operates not only duty free shops,but also non-profit facilities, all occupying atotal of 10,381 square meters of space.

“Tasa Meng is responsible for the over-all planning, operating and management of

duty free stores in District D of Terminal 2,”says Clare Chen, Director of Business Man-agement Division for Tasa Meng.

Since then, Tasa Meng has put into motiona number of development projects in Terminal2, including renovations made in 2011 to anarts and crafts shop, two souvenir shops andliquor and tobacco shop. “The design of thenew shops combines modern aesthetics withoriginal elements to create a vivid store atmos-phere,” Chen tells Asia Duty Free.

Last year, Tasa Meng also unveiled a John-nie Walker lounge where customers can

relax while they wait to board their flights.Travelers can enjoy samples of JohnnieWalker Blue Label and learn about the his-tory of the brand and products via a brandambassador. The lounge offers limited seat-ing, so only reservations are accepted.

This year brought more news from theoperator. On July 16, a new 200-squaremeter Cartier boutique opened in Terminal2, offering a full assortment of Cartier prod-ucts. In August, Tasa Meng was awarded aconcession to operate a souvenir store, off-shore duty free shop and café/restaurant

housed withinthe MatsuNation ScenicArea administration’s new visitor center onthe Matsu islands, set to open in November.Although construction of the new visitor cen-ter has been completed, the brand and prod-uct selection for the new stores has not yetbeen finalized. Chen feels these develop-ments will prove to be successful at attract-ing more Chinese visitors.

In September, the first airport charitystore was built between Gate D1 and Gate D2,

along with an airport library at Terminal 2 ofTaoyuan International Airport.All proceedsfrom the 56-square-meter charity store whichopened on September 4 will be donated to sixcharity foundations in Taiwan. The store willoffer an array of products, including mugs,bags, mobile accessories and other itemsfrom various charity foundations.

In addition to stores, Tasa Meng has alsomade significant investments in passengerservice facilities at the airport, including aninformation counter, a nursery room, a play-ground, TV lounge, art gallery and a Taiwan

indigenous culture park and teatasting area.

The nationalities of Tasa Meng’scustomers vary, but the majority areTaiwanese, mainland Chinesetourists and Japanese, with the Chi-nese visitors significantly con-tributing to the operator’s strongperformance in the duty free mar-ket. “Liquor, local souvenirs andluxury products are sought after byChinese visitors,” explains Chen.More and more Chinese travelersare visiting Taiwan, Chen says, withmore expected once the MatsuNation Scenic Area administrationvisitor center is in full operation.

Tasa Meng’s top three categories in termsof sales are liquor and tobacco, fragrancesand cosmetics, and souvenirs. Chen notes thatluxury fashion has also received a positiveresponse. With a new souvenir store, an off-shore duty free shop and a café/restauranton the verge of opening, it’s likely that thesecategories will continue to do well, partic-ularly with the growing number of Chinesecustomers arriving. c

Tasa Meng’s hard work and strategic investmentsare poised to pay off BY MELISSA SILVA

Measuring 56 square meters, the new Charity Store donates all proceeds tocharity foundations in Taiwan

Developmentdriven

Clare Chen, Director of BusinessManagement Division, Tasa Meng

The new Cartier boutique in Terminal 2at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:31 PM

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Cathay Pacific

For Cathay Pacific, inflight duty freeservice is first and foremost aboutcustomer comfort, which is why the

operator has introduced its convenient,hassle-free home delivery service for pas-sengers aboard flights. Partnering withInflight Sales Group (ISG), Cathay Pacificoffers inflight sales services and jointlymanages different parts of the inflight retailbusiness, such as strategy planning, productsourcing, logistics and crew training.

Aiming to continuously improve salesservice to passengers, Cathay Pacific decidedin July 2012 to expand its home deliveryservice to cover selected regional destina-tions, including Hong Kong, Japan, Main-land China, Singapore, South Korea andTaiwan. Passengers residing in any of theaforementioned regions can nowconveniently place a homedelivery order and have theproducts delivered right totheir doorstep.

The decision to expandits home delivery servicewas likely a result of sur-veying and under-standing passen-gers’ feedback

regarding its inflight services, somethingthat Cathay Pacific engages in frequently.

“Research is conducted in the format ofinflight distributed surveys and focus groupdiscussions with our frequent flyers—mem-bers of the Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles,”explains Inflight Sales Operations ManagerJessica Wan. “Inflight sales are part of the top-ics covered in this research to yield insightsinto product selection, service standardsand sales promotion initiatives.”

With Cathay Pacific’s online sales plat-form, passengers can browse hundreds ofduty free items, which can be reserved andclaimed onboard their next Cathay Pacificflight, or depending on their region, have theproducts delivered to their home.

Presently, passengers can browse andpurchase Cathay Pacific’s “Best Picks for

July-September 2012” on the onlineshop. Some of these items includeHugo Boss Black Menswear BeltTeneo, Anteprima Wirebag – Luc-chetto and the Aigner Amalfi II

Ladies Watch, which are all exclusively avail-able on Cathay Pacific.

In addition to focusing on understandingpassengers and catering to their shoppingneeds, Cathay Pacific is also conscious aboutaccommodating the environment at thepoint of sale, and has strategically incorpo-rated green initiatives into its inflight services.

“It is our mission to operate as a sociallyand environmentally responsible company,”Wan tells Asia Duty Free. “When it comesto inflight sales, we currently offer an optionfor passengers to purchase what we callthe ‘FLY greener carbon offsets’ in quanti-ties according to flight class and distanceflown. We use the money to purchase car-bon credits from projects that actuallyreduce or prevent greenhouse gases. Tohelp save the environment, we also offer areusable shopping bag at a very affordableprice to reduce usage of paper/plastic shop-ping bags. Sustainability is one of the keyconcerns as we evaluate and select productsfor onboard retail.” c

With its passenger-focused approach, Cathay Pacific is increasing the convenience of its inflight sales services, while decreasing its carbon footprint BY MELISSA SILVA

Duty free at your doorstep

Cathay Pacific was recently votedWorld’s Best Business Class in thehighly regarded Skytrax 2012 sur-vey, which queried over 18 millionpassengers from around the world.

Its new Business Class seat fea-tures ample legroom, and allowspassengers to move their seat back

or forward, coupled with 82 inchesof bed length (tip-to-tip). A precisiontoggle provides the option to adjustthe seat position to fit the passenger’sposture and comfort.

The new fully flat bed is just over2 meters long. A bed extensionalso provides passengers withadditional hip support. A sidestorage compartment offers

extra knee space forthose passengers whowish to sleep on their

side. A moveablearm rest can be left

up for privacy, ormoved down to pro-

vide more space.

The side cabinet has enough space for notonly a headset and vanity mirror, but also forother small items, such as glasses and gad-gets. The cabinet door conveniently doublesas a privacy divider.

As for entertainment options, passengerssimply need to press a button to open the 15.4-inch TV with audio and video on demand.Cathay Pacific’s StudioCX offers a rotatinglibrary of more than 100 movies, 500-plus TVshows, 888 music CDs, 22 radio channels andmore than 70 video games, all with the optionof listening in one of 10 languages and througha noise-cancelling headset.

The entertainment control panel includesa multi-port connector that allows passen-gers to connect their own electronic devices,including iPods and iPhones. The connec-tor also allows passengers to stream audioand video content to their own personal TV,which can be controlled with their own device.Also provided is a USB port for chargingmobile devices.

Cathay Pacific’s new Business Class hasbeen introduced on its Boeing 777-300ER andAirbus A330-300 aircraft.

Cathay Pacific’s award-winning business class

Jessica Wan,Inflight SalesOperationsManager, Cathay Pacific


Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:31 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:32 PM

Changi


Changi Airport Group (CAG),the operator of Singapore’sworld-class air hub, is a com-pany that doesn’t like to stand

still. It’s spearheaded a program of pro-gressive development at Changi Airport inthe three years since it was formed and,according to its Executive Vice President ofCommercial, Lim Peck Hoon, Changi’scontinued success is all about change.

“To maintain Changi Airport’s compet-itive edge as an air hub and transit destina-tion, it’s important that we continuouslyenhance our infrastructure and facilities tomeet passengers’ evolving needs,” she says.“Following the completion of Terminal 1’supgrading, we have already kick-started theplanning process for another two majordevelopment projects that will not onlyexpand Changi’s handling capacity, but alsobroaden its range of offerings.”

The first project is the planning and con-struction of a new, fourth terminal. Termi-nal 4 (T4) will be a larger terminal, designedwith efficiency and continued passengertraffic growth in mind.

Peck Hoon says: “We’re mindful of the ris-ing expectations of passengers for an enjoy-able airport experience, complete with agood range of amenities and retail offer-ings. Hence, in our design of T4, we areplanning a wider choice of retail and diningofferings as well as passenger amenities thatwill better serve the needs of travelers. Thesewill be well integrated with the terminal’s fea-tures for a better ambience.”

Construction of T4 will begin in 2013and the new terminal is expected to beready by 2017.

In addition, following the enhancementsto facilities in T1, CAG has been looking athow to optimize land use around the termi-nal. Now, the airport operator has embarkedon a T1 expansion project, redeveloping theopen-air car park in front of the terminalinto a multi-use complex that will be a sig-nature lifestyle destination.

“Besides expanding the terminal’s han-dling capacity,” Peck Hoon says, “the com-plex will enable Changi to offer a widerrange of travel-related services and dedi-cated facilities to support new initiatives

such as fly-cruise and fly-coach offerings –important options to a rising number oftravelers. It is also envisaged [that it will] pre-sent attractive retail, entertainment andrecreational offerings to our visitors …enhancing [Changi’s] appeal as a stopoverdestination for transit passengers.”

As if CAG weren’t busy enough plan-ning all this development, it has busily beenadding new brands to its retail lineup.

So far this year, brands making theirdebut at Changi have included: lingerie andbeauty product specialist Victoria’s Secret(operated by Nuance-Watson (Singapore) inT1); South Korean premium ginseng prod-ucts brand Cheong Kwan Jang (operatedby South Korea’s Hotel Lotte in T2); Span-ish high street apparel label Desigual (thebrand’s first store in Asia, operated by NTSIt Is Not The Same Singapore in T3); andTommy Hilfiger (the label’s first free-stand-ing concept store in Asia Pacific, operated byKing Power Singapore in T3.

During the remainder of 2012, CAG willopen stores including: TWG Tea Boutique(to be operated by TWG Tea Company from

Singapore’s Changi Airport hasalways been a step ahead,constantly changing its commercialproposition. Asia Duty Free reportson its latest moves BY P. CONVERY

PerpetualMOTION

Changi’s overhaul of T1 hasgiven the airport a better,

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Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:32 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:32 PM

Changi


the third quarter in T3); Indian gold conceptLuvenus (to be operated by Indian Jewellersfrom the third quarter in T2); handbag andluggage brand Kipling (to be operated byKing Power International from the fourthquarter in T2); and Italian luxury cashmereand wool apparel label Loro Piana (to be

operated by Loro Piana Far East from thefourth quarter in T2).

One brand CAG has been working closelywith is Australian wine label Penfolds.

“Penfolds is a key partner to Changi Air-port and our retailers,” says Peck Hoon. “Theyhave, together with DFS, supported us withmany Changi firsts and exclusive launches overthe years. Our retailers also work very closelywith other winemakers, including top Frenchchateaux in Bordeaux, [alongside Australianwinemakers] Seppelt, Wynns Coonawarraand Coldstream Hills, to provide an attrac-tive assortment of brands and labels.

Peck Hoon says: “The wine sector hasbeen growing healthily at Changi, and ourretailers look forward to further opportunitiesfor growth as Asian consumers continue toexplore wine and gain a greater appreciationof the product. They will continue to focuson building a strong product assortment,brand promotions and staff development todrive sales further.

“According to our retailers DFS andHeinemann Asia Pacific, red wines are per-forming very well at Changi Airport, par-ticularly wines from France and Australia,”she says. “These two [wine-producing coun-tries] are well known to Asian wine con-

sumers and have featured prominently onAsian markets for several years.

“At the same time, our retailers are start-ing to see Asian consumers becoming moreinterested in learning about wines from dif-ferent regions and exploring the many regionsand varietals we have on offer.”

Peck Hoon says Changi’s wine retailersemphasize regular staff training to familiarizefloor personnel with new wines they intro-duce at Changi so they can explain to cus-tomers the origins, history and quality ofwines they are considering for purchase.

She says: “Our retailers [also] place astrong emphasis on maintaining a strongoffering of rare and exclusive products forour passengers. For example, DFS has arange of unique vintages and collectionsfrom top wineries around the world, includ-ing three very special vintages it is currentlyfeaturing from Chateau Petrus. Heinemann’sVine & Leaf store also carries 50 labels of col-lectible and rare wines, including 15 labelsfrom the 1855 first-growth qualification.

“The ability to introduce rare and exclu-sive products is definitely pivotal in deliveringan exceptional experience for our wine-lov-ing passengers.”

Peck Hoon adds that with the impend-ing expiry of the current liquor & tobaccocontract in early 2014, CAG is preparing tolease out the concession early next year, andthat the exercise will give the airport oper-ator a key opportunity to garner new andinnovative ideas from the market.

She says that growth in mainland Chinese

and Indian passenger traffic has contributedstrongly to retail sales growth at Changi thisyear, with Chinese passenger numbers up18% and Indian traveler numbers 13% higher.

“We believe both markets will continue tohold steady in view of their growing economiesand burgeoning middle-classes,” says Peck

Hoon, “and this should bode wellfor Changi’s traffic with both mar-kets for [the remainder of] 2012.”

“For the first half of 2012,Chinese nationals contributedabout 25% to concession sales atChangi,” she says. “Categoriessuch as liquor & tobacco, per-fumes & cosmetics and luxurygoods remain the most favoredproduct categories amongst Chi-nese passengers. Together withour retail partners, we continu-ously strive to understand chang-ing consumer preferences andspending trends so as to ensurethat our product range meets theneeds of our passengers.”

Peck Hoon also says passen-ger traffic growth has been sup-ported by low-cost airlines, whichcarried 26% more passengers in2011 – faster growth than amongfull-service airlines, whose pas-

senger traffic rose 6%. And she says LCCs havecontinued to drive traffic growth at Changiduring the first half of 2012.

And CAG is committed to getting max-imum bang for its buck out of those pas-sengers in its retail operations with its anchorpromotion, the highly successful “Be a ChangiMillionaire”.

The second run of Be a Changi Million-aire in 2011 saw the airport’s sales grow byabout 20% over the same period in 2010,double the 10% rate of passenger trafficgrowth during the period. The promotion’sthird run was launched in May and is ongo-ing until November 11.

Peck Hoon says: “The promotion hasgained strong traction since its inception, andthe response from both shoppers and con-cessions has been favorable. In view of that,we are likely to retain and repeat it as ourannual anchor promotion, but we’ll lookat innovative ways to refresh the shopperexperience each time.”

Given Changi’s impressive track recordof ambitious adaptation and change, there’slittle doubt the airport’s operator will con-tinue to deliver on its millionaire promise,and the huge commercial opportunity itsbusiness represents. c

With the revamp of T1complete, CAG is now

planning to get the most outof the land around the

terminal, developing a lifestyledestination complex on the

site of a former car park

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:32 PM

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Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:32 PM

Duty Free Philippines


With its 25th year about to wrap up,state-owned retailer Duty FreePhilippines (DFP) still has lots of

reasons to celebrate. The retailer recordedsales of US$110 million for the first semes-ter of 2012, a 9% growth over last year’sfigures of US$101 million.

This growth was a direct result of DFP’sintensified marketing activity around its sil-ver anniversary.

In addition, DFP held a month-long,mall-wide Year of the Dragon sale in thefirst quarter of the year. In the second quar-ter DFP produced a new TV commercial,released print advertisements in major dailiesand intensified its social media efforts.

Also contributing to the strong perfor-mance was the one-day anniversary salecampaign held at the Fiestamall store toreward customers for their patronage ofduty free through the years. Named “Anniver-sary Treat in Fiestamall,” the sale offeredmost items at a 25% discount. “Sales forthat day alone at the Fiestamall reachedUS$1 million,” says Lorenzo Enchong For-moso, Chief Operating Officer.

Along with recently opening the very firstVictoria’s Secret boutique in the country atthe Fiestamall, DFP has also embarked on amajor expansion program of store open-ings and renovations this year, with arrange-ments to open duty free outlets alreadyunderway at the following locations: KaliboInternational Airport (arrivals and departuresareas); Embarcadero de Legazpi, Albay; Cat-iclan Airport and Puerto Princessa, Palawan.These locations are regarded as the country’stop tourist destinations thanks to pristineresorts and beaches (Boracay and Palawan).

Looking ahead, DFP plans to close itsanniversary year with a bang. Until October31, the retailer is holding its Early ChristmasRegalo, and to drive traffic DFP is distrib-uting gift coupons at the NAIA arrival areaof Terminals 1 and 2. The coupon entitlesthe bearer to a free shirt, umbrella, balikbayan

box, passport holder or luggage tag. Witha minimum purchase of US$200, the shop-per will be given a free jacket.

In more development and renovationnews, DFP’s seaport store at the ManilaOcean Park was recently opened. NAIA Ter-minal 1, Gates 1 and 16 were already reno-vated. Currently underway and due for com-pletion by the end of the year are renovationsat the following stores: NAIA Terminal 1departures area, Terminal 2 arrivals anddepartures areas; Terminal 3 departures andarrivals areas; Cebu Waterfront Hotel lobbyand lower ground extension; and MactanCebu International Airport departures, pre-departures and arrivals areas.

In terms of sales, Formoso cites confec-tionery, liquor and fashion as the top threecategories. As for brands, the top threeinclude Hershey’s, Kraft and Mars for con-fectionery; Johnnie Walker, Chivas Regaland Alfonso for liquor; and Lacoste,Longchamp and Ferragamo for fashion.

Within two of its top categories, DFPhas expanded its merchandise lineup withthe introduction of new products and brands.“In May, DFP launched to its travel retail part-

ners and suppliers in Singapore two of its newmajor products, the VuQo vodka andGuimaras chocolates to introduce the con-cept of reverse pasalubong shopping or thepurchase of homecoming gifts to friendsand family upon the balikbayan’s/traveler’sreturn to their country of origin,” Formosotells Asia Duty Free.

Balikbayans—overseas Filipino work-ers—still serve as the bulk of DFP’s cus-tomers and constitute 86.68% of its total mar-ket. American, Chinese and Canadian cus-tomers follow behind at 6.08%, 1.48% and1.20% respectively. Japanese, Australian,British and Korean customers maintain lessspace in DFP’s market, adding up to 1.09%,0.67%, 0.65% and 0.50% respectively. c

As Duty Free Philippines’25th year winds down,sales, renovations and newprojects set the stage forthe next 25 BY MELISSA SILVA

DFP celebrates astrong 25 years

Duty Free Philippines 25th Anniversary celebrationprint advertisement

VuQovodka and Guimaraschocolates, two of Duty Free Philippines’ new major products

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:33 PM

Storck Travel Retail presents ...

... the new face of its iconic merci Finest Selection at the

upcoming TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes (Stand: Mediterranean Village P9)

The Travel Retail Exclusive World

Skyline Pack!

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:33 PM

HKIA


The first seven months of 2012were busy for Hong Kong Inter-national Airport (HKIA), as theairport handled 32.7 million

passengers, representing 5.9% growthcompared with the same period last year.

At HKIA all air traffic is regarded asinternational, and according to the latesttraffic statistics, the airport set new monthlyrecords for passenger volume in July 2012,handling over 5 million passengers, whichrepresents growth of 0.5% over July 2011,when the previous record was set.

The source of this growth can be mainlyattributed to travel by Hong Kong residents,which increased by 6% over the same monthlast year. Passenger traffic to and from Japanand Taiwan was also particularly strong.

A spokesperson for Airport AuthorityHong Kong (AAHK) says that Cathay Pacificand Dragonair—both of them home-basedairlines—contributed most to the increasein passenger traffic.

Countries of origin that contributed thegreatest share of the traffic increases and makeup HKIA’s largest passenger markets includeSoutheast Asia, the Mainland and Taiwan,constituting 26.5%, 21.7% and 13.8% respec-tively of the total passenger throughput. Thistrend has been stable in recent years with nomajor changes, says the spokesperson.

Supporting the passenger traffic increaseswas the recent addition of four new air-lines—Far Eastern Air Transport, Mongo-

lian Airlines Group, Peach Aviation andAirAsia Philippines, along with the addi-tion of Air Astana, which offers direct flightsfrom Hong Kong to Almaty.

In 2011 actual air traffic at HKIA sur-passed the demand forecast in Master Plan2030 by about two years. While air trafficdemand is expected to grow in leaps andbounds in the next two decades, HKIA isexpected to reach saturation under the cur-rent two-runway system around 2020, saysthe spokesperson.

Also on the rise is HKIA’s non-aeronau-tical revenue. According to the Annual Reportfor 2011/12, non-aeronautical revenue atHKIA contributed around 64% in total,representing an approximate increase of10% over a decade ago.

HKIA frequently launches joint promo-tions with its retailers, including its dutyfree operators, such as credit card promo-tions that target specific airport users andencourage them to make purchases. In addi-tion, HKIA regularly launches promotionshighlighting unique offers and exclusiveproducts at the airport.

“HKIA aims to maintain a leadershipposition in airport management and avia-tion-related businesses to strengthen HongKong as a center of international and regionalaviation,” says the spokesperson. “Withincreasing passenger traffic at HKIA, we areconfident towards the performance of retailand commercial business. Looking forward,

we will regularly review our strategy andmake respective adjustments according tomarket demand.”

Optimizing operationsAmong other large-scale projects on HKIA’sagenda is the planned development of athree-runway system. AAHK recently receiveda study brief issued by the Director of Envi-ronmental Protection for the Environmen-tal Impact Assessment (EIA), which out-lines the scope of environmental issues to beaddressed in the EIA study and relatedrequirements concerning air and water qual-ity, noise, marine ecology, fisheries and haz-ards, among others.

The next step for AAHK is to launch theEIA process, which is expected to take abouttwo years to complete. In accordance withthe requirements under the EIA Ordinance,AAHK will include all study findings and pos-sible mitigation measures in the EIA report.“We are dedicated to carry out this work ina highly prudent, transparent and profes-sional manner as always,” the AAHKspokesperson tells Asia Duty Free. “We willnot underestimate the challenges ahead,and will explore all possible ways to avoid,minimize, mitigate and compensate forpotential environmental impacts.”

Technical briefing groups and communityliaison groups will soon be set up to facili-tate stakeholders’ exchange of views on theEIA and related issues. “We have also launched

Hong Kong

HKIA matches hefty traffic increases with a broad arrayof plans and projects BY MELISSA SILVA

The source of air traffic growth in July can be mainlyattributed to travel by Hong Kong residents, which

increased by 6% over the same month last year

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:33 PM

Asia-2012-October-v12 10/02/12 4:26 PM

HKIA


a dedicated website [www.threerunwaysys-tem.com] to provide updated informationabout the airport’s expansion plan, includ-ing the study brief and other information forpublic access,” says the spokesperson.

Apart from the three-runway project,HKIA continues to upgrade facilities and ser-vices on both a short- and medium-termbasis to cope with escalating demand foraviation services and to maintain its com-petitiveness.

For the short term HKIA has embarkedupon a three-year, HK$500 million (US$64million) rejuvenation program to enhancesystem reliability and customer satisfaction.The program will overhaul some of HKIA’sutilities and airfield ground lighting as wellas electrical, mechanical, loading bridge andbaggage handling systems.

“Last year, we embarked on midfielddevelopment to meet our medium-termdemand, and Phase 1 of the project is sched-uled for completion by the end of 2015,” theAAHK spokesperson says. A midfield con-course with 20 aircraft parking stands willbe built, and the airport will have an addi-tional handling capacity of 10 million pas-sengers per annum.

“We unveiled the HK$2.2 billion (US$284million) west apron development early thisyear, consisting of 16 new parking stands forcommon use and a cross-runway tunnellinking the West Apron to the cargo area tofacilitate efficient apron vehicle traffic,” saysthe spokesperson. “After these two projects,we will increase the number of parkingstands by 25% from 145 at present to 181.We believe we are able to meet demandgrowth in the medium term.”

In other renovation news, 2012 saw thecontinued expansion and enhancement ofHKIA’s retail areas. Construction of 1,000square meters of new retail space began lastDecember. The new retail space is set to becompleted by the end of 2013, and includesa pair of two-storey shops that have beenleased to prominent luxury brands.

HKIA also started renovating the air-conditioning system and kitchens in theLevel 8 catering area. Work will be under-taken in halves, with the south side completedby July 2012 and the north side completedby April 2013. Four new restaurants—aHong Kong-style café and outlets servingWestern, Cantonese and Asian cuisine—will open in phases.

“We have also opened Dream Come TrueEducation Park and UA IMAX Theatre @Air-port this summer to offer a wide variety ofentertainment facilities for travelers and thelocal public,” the spokesperson says.

Service enhancements are also beingmade, including a mobile boarding passservice implemented this year, which allowspassengers to receive an electronic board-ing pass on their Smartphones. Twelve air-lines now issue mobile boarding passes,which can be scanned at 18 of HKIA’s 72immigration counters at the departureslevels. Additional carriers are expected to jointhe program during the remainder of 2012and throughout 2013.

In addition to the mobile boarding passservice, HKIA began issuing tablet com-puters to its customer service staff and Air-port Ambassadors in 2011, in order to pro-vide real-time flight, hotel and other infor-mation to passengers. “By deploying mobile

applications over our secure Wi-Fi network,we give staff access to a greater range ofdata, thus enhancing passenger satisfactionand our terminal management capabilities,”says the spokesperson.

HKIA has offered free Wi-Fi Internetservice to the public since 2006. In Novem-ber 2011, the airport increased the numberof wireless access points from 110 to 230,enhancing the system’s coverage area and datatransmission capacity.

In what has become part of many an air-port’s mandate, HKIA has been stronglyfocused on becoming more environmen-tally friendly. The AAHK has pledged tomake HKIA the world’s greenest airport,the first commitment of its kind worldwide.The airport community also announcedthat it achieved a 10% reduction in carbonintensity in 2011, which is on track with itsgoal pledged in 2010 to lower HKIA’s car-bon intensity 25% from 2008 levels by 2015.

The airport community has carried outmore than 300 green initiatives to achieve the10% reduction, including installing LEDs,improving chiller systems, introducing moreenergy-efficient vehicles and launching agreen educational program.

The AAHK will complete the replace-ment of more than 100,000 lighting appli-cations with LEDs by the end of 2014. It hasalso announced that all new saloon carsin the Airport Restricted Area (ARA) mustbe electric from mid-2013, and that theentire ARA saloon fleet must be electricby 2017. The AAHK will invest HK$40 mil-lion (US$5 million) to install more charg-ing stations in phases, paving the way forHKIA’s green future. c

Countries of origin that contributed thegreatest share of the traffic increases

and make up HKIA’s largestpassenger markets include Southeast

Asia, the Mainland and Taiwan

Pick-up and drop-offarea at Hong KongInternational Airport

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:33 PM

Angry Birds is a registered trademark of Rovio Entertainment Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright ©2009-2012 Rovio Entertainment Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

6 different-Collect

them all!

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:34 PM

Inflight Sales Group


With more than 30years of experience inthe inflight travelretail business,

Inflight Sales Group (ISG) isheadquartered in Hong Kongwith regional offices in Paris, theUS and Morocco. ISG wasfounded by Jean-Marcel Rouffand services 18 airlines world-wide, including most Chinese air-lines, including Cathay Pacific,Dragonair, Philippine Airlines,Garuda and most recently, India’snumber one airline, Jet Airways.

ISG maintains a strong focus onservice, innovation and results, asevidenced by its status as four-timewinner of DFNI’s Inflight TravelRetailer of the Year Award. Thecompany undertakes a lot ofresearch into passenger buyingbehavior. “We’re very inter-ested in getting behind thenumbers and the big data,”says Vimal Rai, ExecutiveDirector, Inflight SalesGroup. “Understandingwhy people behave the waythey do—in this case whythey shop for what theydo—is crucial to our busi-ness. Understand that andyou’ve won half the battle.”

Part of understandingpassenger buyer behaviorinvolves taking note of shifts in buyer men-tality and adjusting sales strategies to capi-talize on them as they happen.

“We notice subtle but important shifts inpassenger mentality these days,” Rai says.“While they may be more willing to shop,they may not necessarily be willing to buy;while they may be willing to buy, they are alsovery concerned about quality, reliability and

the entire user-experience—much more sothan before.”

This shift, coupled with the currentworldwide economic conditions, couldaccount for the company’s slower pace thisyear, as Rai reports that while ISG is stillgrowing, the rate of growth is noticeablyslower than it has been in the last two years.As a result, Rai sees an opportunity to fur-

ther differentiate by refiningproduct selections to caterto niche, price-insensitiveneeds. “One tends to relaxwhen the going is good, sotimes like these allow us tobe more, not less, creative.”

ISG is therefore experi-menting, having justlaunched its Regional Deliv-ery Program in Asia, whichcaters to Hong Kong, Tai-wan, Korea, China, Singa-pore and Japan. In addition,the company has success-fully launched an inflightcollaboration between AllNippon Airways (ANA) andFrench fashion and lifestyleretailer Colette, as well asthe world’s first inflight pop-up-shop on Cathay Pacific.Rai hopes that these col-

laborations will result in developing otherspecial partnerships with brands and sub-sequently generate more excitement inCathay Pacific’s and ANA inflight shop-ping programs.

Rai says that ISG’s Home Delivery Pro-gram is expanding, and will have the cate-gory doubled in size by Christmas 2012.“Our success here—especially in the tradi-tionally quiet third quarter—bucks the gen-eral declining trend in high-street retailsales, which is a testimony to our belief thatif we give people what they really want, theywill buy,” Rai tells Asia Duty Free.

As for its onboard selection, ISG seescreativity and innovation developing in thewatches and electronics/travel accessories,as both categories have contributed encour-

Inflight Sales Group is flying high withseveral new developments, a flexiblebusiness strategy and new onboard

products in the works BY MELISSA SILVA

Leadingtheway

Inflight Sales Group recentlylaunched an inflight collaborationbetween All Nippon Airways (ANA)and Colette

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:34 PM

aging growth, becoming new drivers ofonboard sales.

“As trendsetters, we want to be ahead ofany buzz and reach a wider customer pro-file, so we’re on track to deliver some veryexciting new products in the upcomingquarters,” says Rai.

Rai is confident that these new productswill help to drive inflight duty free sales andnotes that the company understands therecent shift in buyer mentality and believesit can adjust accordingly.

“It’s been more challenging than we’dlike it to be, but this is not unexpected,” Raisays. “If you’ve been following the trends,forecasts and making an effort to under-stand the impact of the changing economicclimate, then like us, you’d beexpecting such challenges andalready be taking concrete stepsto mitigate the situation.”

Challenges aside, ISG contin-ues to perform well when target-ing regions that are economicallyprosperous, where people havehigher disposable incomes andwhere cultural predispositions toshopping are firmly established,as in Asia. ISG’s 15-plus years ofexperience in mainland Chinahas certainly helped it to understand theAsian consumer.

“Asia, without doubt, is the most promis-ing region economically, for some very self-evident reasons,” says Rai. “Interestingly, wesee greater democratization amongst the

buyers of duty free—i.e. more peoplefrom the back of the aircraft are will-

ing to spend more money on duty free pur-chases. Ultimately, it’s a function of the con-fluence of many factors—showcasing theperfect products, evocative marketing andadvertising, serious selling and intelligent

inventorying—that will ensuresuccess in duty free onboardretailing.”

Although Rai says ISG workswith all suppliers, he finds itespecially gratifying to bringonboard new suppliers who havenever worked in travel retail andwitness their growth, along withthat of their brands. The successof such suppliers and theirrespective brands is critical tohow well ISG performs in termsof sales, but there’s another cru-cial factor—the cabin crew.

“They are our frontline, oursales force and our stars!” Raisays. “Without their efforts,arguably sales would be signifi-cantly lower. Hence keeping themmotivated, happy and wellequipped to deal with thedemands of selling inflight is

one of our key cornerstones to success.”ISG puts a lot of work into cabin crew

incentives, over and above the basic step ofmerely offering higher commissions on chal-lenging targets. “We prefer to incentivizethem in many other ways, often addingvalue to their personal lives, for example,through exposure to the brands and theirproducts. Rewarding attitudes and encour-aging the utilization of techniques that pro-mote repeat purchasing is really the ‘secretsauce’ in the recipe,” says Rai.

As for future developments, Vimal expectsthat incorporating new technology andstrategizing accordingly will be the mainchallenges for inflight retailers.

“To be honest, the developments takingplace around the world—economicallyspeaking— and how these are affecting theoperating bottom lines of airlines, theseare surely the biggest stories for some of ourcustomers,” says Rai. “We’re not blind tothese concerns in ISG and wherever andwhenever possible, we engage our airline cus-tomers on various levels to see how we canassist them to strategically demonstrate thatinflight travel retail yields some of the high-est possible ROI that can be achieved inthe industry.”

Focusing on how to retail better productsin duty free, expanding duty free channels andenhancing marketing efforts in this area—and aiming to be a standard-setter in inflighttravel retail—are among the ways ISG plansto support its airline customers and main-tain a leadership role in the industry. c


Advertising in Cathay Pacific’s Discover the Shopfor ISG’s pop-up-shop onboard the airline is a firstof its kind

A three-zip cosmetic bag from LeSportsac’s “We Love HK” collection

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:35 PM

Exhibitor Spotlight


This year’s TFWA World Exhibitionwelcomes a unique range of exhibitors to

the tradeshow floor. Here’s whatattendees can expect from a few of the

industry’s leading brandsBY MELISSA SILVA

Jonathan Corbett, Founder and Director, The Wandering MonkeyBOOTH: MARINE VILLAGE, S4Where are you based?We’re based in the United Kingdom, south of London.What are some new collections that you will be exhibit-ing during the show?We’re exhibiting our new products The Wandering Monkey3D Puzzle Plane and the Wandering Monkey Games Com-pendium, as well as our current range of exciting Wander-ing Monkey products. We’re also giving a sneak preview tocustomers of some of the new products we currently havein development for the next six to12 months.What are your bestsellers in travel retail?Our bestsellers are quite mixed. The Wandering Monkey Activ-ity Pack tops the list; however, close behind is our SingingRasta Lion who sings “Don’t Worry Be Happy”—he’s greatentertainment on cruise ships! We have very high hopes forThe New Wandering Monkey 3D Puzzle Plane and believeit will quickly become our bestseller. It has just started sell-ing—as of September 1—and is experiencing some greatfeedback already.How long have you been supplying travel retail and duty free?The Wandering Monkey has been established since 2004 andwas set up to provide a unique and original approach to travelretail and “Entertaining Kids on The Move,” so around eight-and-a-half years now.What do you wish to achieve during the TFWA World Exhi-bition?We’re reaching out to all areas of duty free and travel retail aswe believe we have something for everyone, whether it’sproducts suitable for inflight with bar-cart friendly packagingto retail shops with point of sale branding concepts in-store.As a leading supplier of children’s products to the duty freeand travel retail market we believe we can tailor our brand andproducts to all marketplaces, as it’s important to entertain kidson the move!

Showtime The WanderingMonkey 3D Puzzle

Plane

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:35 PM

www.godiva.be

Asia-2012-October-v12 10/02/12 4:27 PM

Exhibitor Spotlight


Doris Maute Bobiller,Export Manager, Mavala BOOTH: RIVIERA VILLAGE, RG16 Where are you based?We’re a family-owned and independentcompany. Everything from the idea to thefinished product, including, research anddevelopment and manufacturing is done inGeneva, Switzerland. What are some new collections that youwill be exhibiting during the show?We will be highlighting one new product fromthe Mavala and Mavalia skincare line, show-casing Arabesque Mini Colors winter col-lection nail polishes; the 50th anniversary ofour 5ml Mini Colors Winter collection; theExtravagance Lipsticks Winter collection;Hydro-Repairing Foot Care and the Oil SealDryer, which is a new product in nail care range.

What are your bestsellers in travel retail?Pouches with various assortment of nailcare, hand care products, like the Travelpouch or Deluxe pouch. Travel-sized prod-ucts in hand care and face care.How long have you been supplying travelretail and duty free? More than 30 years, starting in Scandi-navia, both on planes and cruise ships.Now we’re working with travel retail in Italy,Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the US,either onboard or in the airports.What do you wish to achieve during theTFWA World Exhibition?Our aims for this year’s exhibition are to opennew markets. Although we’re already cov-ering 100 countries worldwide, it’s impor-tant to develop the travel retail business, andintroduce new clients to our Mavala world.

Aman Kumar, Travel RetailDirector, PashmaBOOTH: YELLOW VILLAGE, D23Where are you based?The manufacturing is based in India, whilethe company’s travel retail division is headedout of Singapore. What are some new collections that youwill be exhibiting during the show?Exclusively for the TFWA World Exhibitionin Cannes, we will be showcasing ourSpring/Summer 2013 collection. Apart fromthe main collection, Pashma will promoteits signature ranges of cashmere scarves.The company will also be promoting theirsecond line, Petanu by Pashma, which willoffer a range of summer scarves madefrom fine quality wool, silk and linen that willtarget more accessible price points. What are your bestsellers in travel retail? The Kashgar collection has been the mostsuccessful range in travel retail. The Kash-gar collection consists of a range of light-weight wraps made from the finest qualitycashmere and silk and is available in an arrayof prints and patterns that cater both to thefashion forward and classic customer. How long have you been supplying travelretail and duty free? Ten years starting with Dubai Duty Free. What do you wish to achieve during theTFWA World Exhibition?Apart from looking at growth opportuni-ties with our existing portfolio of airport andinflight airlines, we’re targeting growth inairport stores where we’re looking to part-ner with concessionaires and create aPashma retail experience either within its gen-eral merchandise stores, or through open-ing standalone Pashma stores. Specificregions we are targeting include Asia, Europeand the Middle East. We are also making apush towards leisure-driven airports as wehave had tremendous success there.

Philippa Thomas,Brand DevelopmentManager, Nougat LondonBOOTH: RIVIERA VILLAGE, RE3 Where are you based?Nougat London Limited started lifeas a fashion collection in London’sWest End in 1990. We’re still locatedin the heart of London with thefamous Oxford Street and TheatreLand on our doorstep.What are some new collections that youwill be exhibiting during the show? We have a new collection of gifts perfectfor every woman who likes a little self indul-gence and men who like to keep wellgroomed! In addition we’ll be showing ournew fragrance for men, Amber and Cedar-wood, which was launched earlier this year.What are your bestsellers in travel retail?Our bestseller in travel retail remains our Nur-turing Hand Cream Duo, which featuresour ever popular hand cream in two of ourbestselling fragrances. Our Nurturing HandCream contains Almond Oil, Cocoa Butterand Macadamia Oil to instantly hydrateand smooth the skin and strengthen yournails without leaving a sticky residue.

How long have you been supplying travelretail and duty free?We’re still relatively new to the industrywith our first travel partnership only launch-ing a year ago onboard with P&O Ferries.What do you wish to achieve during theTFWA World Exhibition?TFWA in Cannes remains an importantshow for us and enables us to furtherexpand our presence in the travel retailmarket. We hope to expand our presencein South America where we already havea strong following in countries such asChile. We’re also hoping to talk to distrib-utors with both wholesale and retail chan-nels in various global markets to furtherexpand the business in domestic markets.

The new Autumn/Winter collection “Arabesque Colors”

Spring/Summer2013 Collection

Nougat London’sBody to Home

Collection

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:36 PM

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Frédérique Constant’s staying power p. 54 Misaki

targets Asia p. 56If the price fits... p. 51 Watch

News p. 58

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 8:12 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:36 PM


Asia is a prime market for watchestoday, with several brands mak-ing impressive strides in thecategory across the region.

The demand for a more affordableprice range is becoming moreand more apparent, so much sothat Lambretta Watches’ SalesDirector of Travel Retail Beat-rice Düring believes goodpricing has become more of afashion accessory than thetimepiece itself.

Fashion, lifestyle and accessoriescompany Fossil seems to agree, asthe brand recently identified a “conser-vative” trend with customers placingorders earlier this year. Sales have pickedup since, with the end of the year lookingpromising. A focus on visual merchandis-ing and sales training likely helped thebrand capture this upswing.

Top UK watch brand Sekonda seems tobe trend-friendly with the strategic pricingof its watches between US$30 and $200.“There’s a very small percentage travelingthrough airports who can afford to spendthousands of dollars on a watch,” says DavidMerriman, Managing Director, Sekonda.“We look at ourselves being a little more‘democratic.’ Our aim is volume and tomake it as easy as possible for the consumerand the retailer.”

Sekonda has put the idea of makingthings easy into practice with a special self-select unit, which offers dummy samples ina presentation box at the top. The customercan have a look at the samples and select awatch of interest. When they remove one, thegravity fed system replaces it with another.It’s also easy for sales staff and merchandisers,Merriman explains. When they receive thestock from the warehouse all they have to dois look at the dummy sample, see where itis on the selection and put the new stock in.

Another system, designed for lower pricedwatches, is the “Euro hanger” system. Theprice point is given at the top of the displayand all the watches below it are under that

price. There are pictures of the watchesdown the middle with the watches arrayedon either side.

Currently in Asia, as elsewhere, there’s astrong market shift away from the higher endof the market in favor of affordability, thanksin large part to the Eurozone crisis and pan-American recession. But for some customersa more affordable price tag equates to a low-quality product, so the task for retailers is tofind the proverbial happy medium, especiallywhen dealing with Asia, where customershave a keen eye for value.

Brands like Lambretta Watches keep aneye out for global trends regardless of the pres-sure to sell within an affordable price range.“We’re open minded and don’t hesitate to tryout and discuss new ideas with our cus-tomers,” says Düring. “As a young, dynamicand small company, we are very flexible andencourage our staff to think creatively.”

Creativity and flexibility appear to beaiding Lambretta in Asia, as the company hasalready exhibited at three travel retail fairsthere—ARC Singapore, ARC Shanghai and

TFWA AP Singapore. Lambretta’s exposureat these conferences has brought the com-pany promising contacts in the region, andprobably helped it snag recent listings on sev-eral Asian airlines.

Exposure such as this is critical, and prob-ably contributed to Lambretta producerCapella Industries’ turnover increase of 45%this past June compared to the same periodlast year, setting the stage for a robust end-of-year turnover. As a result, the company’sstaff has increased by 20% to handle thegrowing demand.

Watching the winnersSekonda places a huge emphasis on main-taining brand exposure, to the point thatwhenever a new airport retailer opts for oneof the brand’s displays, Sekonda will supplyit free of charge.

“We obviously don’t know what watchessell in a particular country, but we do knowwhat our bestsellers are,” says Merriman.“So we do the first selection and after sixmonths we send somebody in who works

Watch Report

These timepiece brands take on the vibrant Asian market with carefully calibratedpricing strategies BY MELISSA SILVA

If the price fits...

From left: Part of Fossil’s Holiday 2012 collection are boyfriend-inspired “Heather” in rose, military-inspired“Nate” in grey with leather strap, and “Emma” in bone, with white leather strap and mother of pearl dial

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:37 PM

Watch Report


with the buyer and the merchandising teamto decide which watches are selling.” Sekondatakes back the watches that aren’t selling, freeof charge, and replaces them with watchesthey think will do better. The brand currentlyhas 150 units around the world in 50 coun-tries in the travel retail channel.

Creativity and exposurehave both been huge factors inthe success newcomer Ice-Watch has experienced this year.The brand has emerged as one ofthe most creative in the fashion watchsegment in 2012, with 12 new collectionsand new licenses, according to NathalieDeroanne, Communications Manager.“The watch category is a growing mar-ket that stimulates competition and there-fore innovation,” says the spokesperson.“We’re more determined than ever to grow,focusing on quality and creativity, and inten-sifying the interactions with our communityto convey the brand’s image and spirit.”

Determined to achieve maximum expo-sure and visibility, the Ice-Watch brand hasopened new points of sale and has placed newlistings in inflight catalogues and adver-tisements in key airport areas.

Maintaining strong collaboration isanother core contributor to market success.Strong strategic partnerships are invalu-able, especially when price point is top ofmind for the consumer. Accordingly, Lam-bretta has sought collaborative partnershipsthat will ensure its presence on airlines andin airport stores. Since last year, the companyhas been collaborating with Gebr Heine-mann and Aélia airport stores, where it hasinaugurated a new space-efficient mer-chandising concept.

Likewise, the Ice-Watch timepieces haveprofited from local partners that have beenfollowing the brand’s development since asearly as 2007, establishing a strong presencein duty free stores in the Philippines and

inflight sales on Garuda Indonesia Airlines.To strengthen its network, the brand will belisting its products on Cathay Pacific and AirTahiti Nui in October, gaining greater expo-sure in Asia in the first half of 2013. The Ice-Watch brand already has new partnershipswith Inflight Sales Group (ISG) for some of

their airlines inthe Asia-Pacificregion rampingup before year-end, andwith dutyf r e es h o p s

in downtown areas in Korea with Shilla DutyFree, among others.

Ice-Watch’s sales are on the rise, with2012 ahead of 2011 on a year-over-yearbasis, says Deroanne. “We gained many newclients, and our original ‘Sili Forever’ col-lection is a real bestseller in duty free. In onlyone year the Sili Forever White model wasthe bestselling model on Air France flightseight times.”

Pricing for the peopleArmed with its democratic pricing approach,Sekonda has garnered significant businessthrough partnerships with Asian airlines, thelargest being Thai Airways where sales of itsRose Gold Chrono model have soared.Sekonda is also well supported by KingPower in Thailand. “They understoodincredibly quickly how important self-selectwas with the volume of traffic going throughBangkok,” says Merriman. “They put sixunits around the airport and sales havebeen fantastic.”

Fossil is currently working very closelywith newly acquired brand Skagen in order

to maximize opportunities for both com-panies. The brand is also expanding thebusiness it does with its most importanttravel retail partners Gebr Heinemann,Dufry and Nuance Group.

Aside from pricing accurately, ensuringmaximum exposure and creating profitablepartnerships, the collection itself has to haveeven stronger aesthetic appeal these days toentice the discerning Asian consumer intopurchasing. Lambretta’s Cielo Collection—

“Cielo” is derivedfrom the Italianword for “heav-enly”—placesa premiumon aesthetic

a p p e a l ,t a k i n gdesign cuesfrom the1960s and the

iconic ItalianLambretta scooters.

Lambretta describes the collection as a fun,retro and colorful collection with an afford-able price tag—all the right componentsfor the current consumer environment. TheCielo Mesh model is available in three dif-ferent metal shades: two layer gold plating,cool silver plating and dark graphite plating.

For the TFWA World Exhibition inCannes, Capella Industries will display its fullAvanti concept, a world-time racing Chronowatch inspired by the retro style of the 1960sand 1970s. The analog/digital movementenclosed by the carbon fiber dial offers manyfunctions, such as world time for 56 cities,chronograph with lap times, calendar andback light. Named after a specially tunedLambretta engine, the Avanti line features a46 mm case.

Fossil’s Holiday 2012 collection will havenew pieces in the Heritage Collection, whichoffers “clean, classic styles from the past.”Among the models are the new Heirloomleather with a vintage feel, new Classicswatches with all new-titanium construc-tions and Signature models inspired by mid-century sunscreens.

Lambretta’s Cielo Mesh

collection in silver, gold and graphite

features a stainless steel caseback

and a dial, second hand and bracelet all

in the same color

A space-efficient display from LambrettaWatches at Copenhagen Airport

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:38 PM


The Ice-Watch brand is betting that thebasic colors deployed in its collection willattract and maintain consumer interest. “Wewere very strong in establishing the 10 basiccolors in our collections and giving con-sumers value by adding a visual and func-tional importance to the packaging,”Deroanne says.

To build brand identity and market expe-rience, the Ice-Watch brand plans to developnew collections with broad ranges of vari-ation not only in terms of color, but also interms of graphic elements, sizes, materialsand functionality, as seen with its Ice-Chronoline. “We also keep developing our classic col-lections, and they keep being our bestsellers,”says Deroanne.

In selecting collections for duty free andtravel retail, space considerations are para-mount, especially of course for inflight. Dueto the limited space trolleys afford, the Ice-Watch brand limits the collections it selectsfor inflight to more “standard” colors likewhite and black (“these are nevertheless ourtop-selling colors all over the world,”Deroanne points out). It will also add a fewselections from the bestselling collections ormodels that are currently being promotedin the brand’s product placement market-ing activities.

The duty free business model is morealigned to the domestic retail market, andbuyers tend to follow the most successful Ice-Watch timepieces. “They first create the highvisibility and identity of the 10 ‘Sili For-ever’ colors,” Deroanne says, “and then theyfollow our launch calendars to offer themost innovative collections and benefit fromthe domestic promotions. They translatethis into their buying activities during morerelaxed travel times.”

Tracking the trendsOf course, Ice-Watch’s internal designdepartment follows world fashiontrends, working closely with world-wide designers or licenses. ButDeroanne emphasizes that it’s Ice-Watch’s loyal customers who havereally created the brand, and Ice-Watch stays close to themthrough social media channels.The brand’s Facebook commu-nity boasts nearly 1.5 millionfans and works as a great way toget feedback, share ideas, stay ontop of new buying trends—andof course sometimes get some-thing totally unexpected.

“The whole Asia-Pacific market

is emerging indeed,”Deroanne says.According to fig-ures from Gen-eration in July,the APACregion is fore-cast to have ashare of 39.5%of the world’stravel retailand dutyfree market(the MiddleEast comes inat 10%, theAmericas at23.5% andEurope at 26%).In China, dutyfree business inSanya andHaikou (both onHainan Island) isgrowing very fast fortwo reasons: the governmentproactively pushes duty free development inHainan, and the economy of China simplykeeps growing year after year.

Hainan is a popular destination forwealthy tourists in China, and China DutyFree Group is doing a good job of develop-ing the potential of the duty free market ofSanya Hainan, Deroanne says. Its existingduty free complex recorded a sales turnoverof around RMB1.9 billion (US$301 mil-lion) lasty e a r.

China Duty Freeplans to move thecomplex fromdowntown to Hai-

tang Bay, where it willhave a much largerspace of some 95,000square meters.

Korea’s travel retailand duty free marketcontinues to occupy a

leading position in Asia,with a large part of itssuccess due to the risingnumber of tourists from

China. Last year, 23% oftourists arriving in Koreawere Chinese. Japanese

tourists still hold top placeat 34%. WTO figures showthat Chinese tourists spend40% of their budget on

shopping, higher than figuresfor tourists from other coun-tries (Japan 22%: US 19%: UK26% and France 14%).

To stay on top of markettrends and maintain customerinterest, Sekonda changes its

range twice a year. “Every year about 40%of the range changes, and the main changehappens in September,” Merriman says. “Ifthere’s a particular fashion or trend, wewill very quickly latch onto it and imple-ment it.” Merriman notes that it’s still toughfor operators like Sekonda in the low- tomid-price segment, as operators want thehighest ticket price possible. But there’s avolume business out there and it’s huge,Merriman says.

Sekonda’s bestselling men’s watch isthe Rose Gold chronograph, which

retails for US$115-$159depending on location.

Bestselling on theladies’ side is TwilightPearl at US$125. In

the Seksy range, theHidden Hearts collection

is available on many airlinesat US$130-$150. “The originalSeksy pieces have sold well over the

years,” Merriman says, “and Party-time, which is a fun collection, is very

popular.” Merriman also singles outSekonda’s Xpose watches, with a plastic caseand a Velcro strap specifically designed forholiday settings, which sells for US$40-$50.The holiday watch has been on the marketfor 25 years. c

A variation of Ice-Watch’s Ice Chrono line,

the Ice-Chrono Electrik is seen here in a black and blue color combination

A bestseller for Sekonda’s Seksy is the Hidden Hearts

watch, which is available onmany airlines

Asia-2012-October-v12 10/02/12 4:41 PM

Frédérique Constant


Contributing to the brand’s strong per-formance is its successful advertising cam-paign within select airports, an environ-ment which Ogier feels is “a great place tocreate and boost brand exposure.” FrédériqueConstant regularly runs ad campaigns andbillboards across major airports, includinga very strong ad campaign currently in placeat Hong Kong International Airport.

Frédérique Constant’s travel retail busi-ness is continuing to grow very strongly inAsia, with new growth opportunities on thehorizon for the end of 2012 through thebeginning of 2013.

“We have plans to increase our marketpresence in the Asia Pacific travel retailmarkets with existing partners, and we lookforward to conquering new strategic mar-kets in the region,” says Ogier. “We plan tocontinue to focus our efforts in domestic andinternational airports in China. We havebegun trading last month in ChengduShuangliu International Airport with ourpartner Dufry.”

Frédérique Constant is currently thenumber one brand in terms of units sold atits new Chengdu location, which openedon August 9.

Although the Middle East remains a verystrong market for the company, there is noindication it will overtake Asia as the biggestgrowing market for the brand. c

Already boasting a strong inflight and airport presence,Frédérique Constant is on the hunt for new partnersand markets BY MELISSA SILVA

flat models featuring dials thatare finished with guilloché pat-terns and come in either silveror white, with a feminine heartspattern. A number of exclusivemodels from the Slimline collec-tion feature diamonds on both thedial and the case.

Ogier says she is starting to see a demo-graphic made up of sophisticated travelerswho are more knowledgeable and moredemanding, which has raised the need forFrédérique Constant to work closely with itsbusiness partners to determine the rightrange of products per point of sale based onpassenger profile. The company continu-ously works towards improving in-storemerchandising and brand visibility, andconducts regular training for sales staff toensure strong product knowledge to betterassist this new consumer group.

With consumers seeking classic designs atmore affordable prices, Frédérique Constantoffers exclusives and limited editions, bothof which have proven to be very successful.

Although small in comparison to othercore categories in travel retail, such as per-fumes and confectionery or liquor andtobacco, the watch category shows the biggestgrowth for the brand. In order to maintainthat growth, especially during tough eco-nomic times, Frédérique Constant aims to“let more people enjoy luxury” by provid-ing consumers with high-quality watcheswith a classic, contemporary design at goodprice points.

“We regularly launch GWP promotionsand other exciting promotional programsacross our travel retail locations to drivesales,” Ogier tells Asia Duty Free. “Equally keyto our success in travel retail are the numer-ous promotions such as draws, productlaunches and watch promotions that weimplement in selected airports.”

Travel retail remains one of watchcompany Frédérique Constant’smain focuses to date, with thecompany planning to continue

expansion into more airport locations byworking closely with existing partners andgaining new ones. In line with these plans,Frédérique Constant will start trading inKiev Airport with Gebr Heinemann nextmonth, and will open new locations inMoscow at Vnukovo Airport with Regstaerlater this year.

The brand is also making great strides inthe inflight channel, experiencing very stronggrowth over the past couple of years with arange of selected timepieces, including travelretail exclusives which are not available indomestic markets. Although listed onboardmajor airlines such as Air France, KLM, Swiss,British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Air China, AllNippon Airways and Etihad, the company islooking to further expand its inflight business,particularly in the Americas.

As for its travel retail locations, growthis fueled in large part by Chinese and Russ-ian shoppers, thanks to buoyant economiesand elevated income and purchasing power.“Travelers from China and Russia have abig appetite for luxury,” says Adrienne Ogier,International Sales Manager, “and watchesand jewelry have become one of the mostpopular categories. Customers are buying lux-ury watches to display their wealth and suc-cess or to give as gifts.”

Among the brand’s more luxurious col-lections are the Classics Manufacture formen and the Slimline Mini for women, twoof Frédérique Constant’s latest releases. TheClassics Manufacture features a luxury dialwith an added center second hand and Cotesde Geneve and Collimacon patterns, and isbased on the second generation of theMaxime movement, cal. FC-710.

The Slimline Mini is a series of ultra-

Staying power

The Classics Manufacture is based on the second generation of the Maxime movement, cal. FC-710

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:41 PM

mis

aki.c

om

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:41 PM

Misaki


Formerly only available on air-lines at the time of its inceptionin 1987, Monte Carlo-based jew-elry company Misaki has beenmaking great strides in establish-

ing itself within the duty free and domes-tic markets.

With Asia serving as one of the brand’sfastest growing markets, sales have sky-rocketed in online Korean duty free, oper-ated by retailers such as Lotte Duty Freeand Walkerhill Duty Free. This has allowedMisaki to increase its visibility with newKorean web partners, and maintain its stand-ing as a leading international jewelrybrand in Korea. “This should give usthe opportunity in the very near futureto enter the downtown duty free in thiscountry,” says Peter Hermes, Head ofSales, Misaki.

As for new developments inAsia, projects in Malaysia arecurrently ongoing, with a newshop-in-shop opening inNovember 2012. The com-pany also has plans to reno-vate its key duty free points ofsale throughout the region byimplementing its new furnituredesign concept, which featuresLED lights and more modern aes-thetics. In addition, Misaki plans tofurther develop its self-service units.

In other markets, sales have increasedslightly for the brand, due in part to itsclose collaboration with retail outlets in

terms of prod-uct re-assort-ment. “This collaboration will result in ourlatest collections always being displayed,with a renewed product offering on a reg-ular basis,” Hermes says.

To meet customer expec-tations, Misaki designs two“thematic” jewelry andwatch collections peryear—spring/summerand autumn/winter.The jewelry andwatches are

designed by an in-house creativeteam composed mainly of French and Ital-ian designers. “From the very beginning ofthe design process our designs are tailoredin order to cater to the tastes of the many dif-

ferent regional markets we are presentin,” says Hermes.

Misaki developed its Shark watchrange in response to demand for

more colorful styles. Inspired bythe success of its men’s Shark

Watch collection, theAutumn/Winter 2012-2013

collection will be launchedat this year’s TFWA WorldExhibition in Cannes. The

range, inspired by the “grace-ful silhouette of the shark,”

offers “Shark Silicone,” “SharkLeather” and “Shark Chrono.”

Shark Silicone offers over nine colorcombinations for women, including

pink, blue, white and red among oth-ers, and of course, silicone straps.

For men, Shark Silicone featuresthree new sporty versions, available with

a black or white dial and with or without achronograph. The men’s watches come witha vibrant orange or cool white silicone strap.

Shark Leather is available in black, greyand chocolate brown, and like the othermodels features shark accents, such as ashark tooth pin and leather that resemblesshark skin. Two Chrono models from “SharkSteel Chrono” complete the collection. c

Cuttingedge Misaki targets the Asia market with a sharp, shark-inspiredcollection BY MELISSA SILVA

Two women’s watches from Misaki’s

new Shark collection featuring a red and white silicone strap

with shark tooth pins

A new sporty version of SharkSilicone for men,

featuring a vibrant orangesilicone strap

A model from Shark Leatherfeaturing black leather madeto resemble shark skin

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:41 PM

CHANGE. YOU CAN.

www.ice-watch.com

ICE-WORLDCOLLECTION

L 21 - RED VILLAGE

VIS IT US AT

T F W A CANNES

For an appointment contact us: [email protected]

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:41 PM


Watch News

Austrian watch maker Jacques Lemans prides itself on offeringwhat it says is one of the best price/quality ratios worldwidesince its inception in 1975, noting that as retailers become moresensitive to price and devote more attention to quality and image,the need for fairly priced, quality timepieces is at an all-time high.

“Jacques Lemans watches are always up-to-date regarding designand technique, making them the perfect products for travelers whoare looking for a gift or accessory at a fair price,” says ChristinaBergmann, Head of Corporate Communications, Jacques Lemans.

Although there’s been a bit of a slowdown due to the current globaleconomic situation, sales are still doing well for the company,which has positive statistics to report from this past summer.

Still in the process of developing a strong position within high-potential regions China and India, Jacques Lemans is also look-ing to penetrate the Americas, a region equally important to thecompany’s travel retail business.

Jacques Lemans uses high quality, “skin-friendly” materi-als, with most of its cases and bracelets made of solidstainless steel (316L) and straps made of silicone orcaoutchouc. High-tech ceramic, hardened Crystex crys-tal, as well as high-grade Italian leather are also all partof Jacques Lemans products. All models are water-resis-tant from 3 ATM to 20 ATM.

The company has been making inroads in thesports world for quite a while, particularly in Formula1 racing from 2006-2011, and in December 2009,the brand became the licensee of the UEFA Cham-pions League. This year marks Jacques Lemans’third year as the official Timing Partner of theEuroleague Basketball Final Four Event whichwas held in Istanbul, Turkey.

In other sports-related news, Jacques Lemanshas been announced as Austrian tennis playerJürgen Melzer’s new watch sponsor until 2013. Jür-gen Melzer has his own “sportive-cool” watches thatare distributed worldwide. “If two internationallysuccessful players play doubles, customers canexpect lots,” says Alfred Riedl, CEO, Jacques Lemans.“The new Jürgen Melzer watch is a real winner.”

“I’m really happy to have found a sponsor whoembodies everything that makes tennis so unique—pre-cision, elegance, endurance and action,” Melzer says. “Ireally appreciate working with Jacques Lemans and col-laborating on my watch collection, which I’m very proud of.”

Jacques Lemans is also sponsoring the Austrian NationalSoccer Team (since 2009) and the Austrian Ice HockeyRecord-Champion EC KAC, and has plans to participate intop equestrian events with its new brand “Pierre Petit.”

At this year’s TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, the com-pany will be presenting new timepieces from three of its sig-

nature collections. New from its La Passion collection is “Milano,”which features a solid stainless steel or solid stainless steel IP-gold case and hardened Crystex crystal, and offers three strapoptions: solid stainless steel, solid stainless steel IP-goldor high-grade leather strap.

New from its Sports collection is “Liver-pool,” which features a solid stainlesssteel or solid stainless steelIP black case, hard-ened Crystex crys-tal and a sili-con or

solid stain-less IP black

strap. Liverpoolis water resis-tant up to 10ATM and

offers 24-hourindication, second

and minute counter anda counter stop function.From its Classic collec-

tion, Jacques Lemans will belaunching three timepieces—the

“Verona,” “Moonphase” and “London”—all of which offer solid stainless steel/solidstainless steel IP-black or IP-rose bicolorcases, hardened Crystex crystal and twostrap options—high grade leather or solid

stainless steel. Each timepiece offers a dif-ferent time and date function: the Verona displaysa large date indicator, the Moonphase displaysa weekday-date-month indicator and the Lon-don offers a dual time function.

“Milano,” thenew timepiecefrom JacquesLemans’ LaPassioncollection,featureshardenedCrystexcrystals

Jacques Lemansbuilds on star value

BY MELISSA SILVA

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:42 PM


Lifestyle company breo is planning to launch itsversion of the popular one-size-fits-all springcoil watch at the TFWA World Exhibition (Blue Vil-lage, Stand H1).

Called the “breo Drop,” the watch incorporatesa quality mineral crystal face rather than the usual plas-tic versions seen on the market.

The drop is currently available exclusively to travel retailand is available in six color variations—three white strapswith mint, purple and white faces and three black straps withpink, orange and black faces.

“Watches with spring coil straps, enabling them to fit any size or shape of wristwith a simple slap-on movement, are very in-vogue at the moment,” says Alison Fish-wick, Global Travel Retail Controller. “Our offer combines the fun, colorful element of thisstyle with a quality mineral crystal face, yet still at a very affordable price.”

Fishwick says the new timepiece is a perfect addition to the breo range of watchesand complements the brand’s other popular collections, including the Classic, RoamElite, Curve, Pure and Venture 3-in-1.

While Asia continues to be thedriving force for its inflight busi-ness, Gerzon Duty Free is alsoexperiencing stable growth inEurope and the Middle East.

As the watch category con-tinues to develop, Gerzonhas noticed a particulardemand regarding chil-dren’s watches for theuse of safer materialsin the manufacturingprocess. Gerzon hastaken note and will present“Disney Time Teachers” chil-dren’s watches made of stain-less steel in Disney’s most famousthemes at this year’s TFWA WE(Blue Village, Stand F27).

The Disney watches also serveas great learning tools for children,Gerzon says. The design of thedial makes reading time easier,and with “hour” and “minute” writ-ten on the hands children canquickly learn how to tell time.

“These watches are a first whenit comes to safety, as they’re made to meeta new higher safety standard without theuse of lead, nickel, mercury and cadmiumin the manufacturing process, something

that is still the norm with other chil-dren’s watch brands,” says Mariëtte

Zonjee, Senior Manager GerzonDuty Free. “Moreover our Disneywatches are also made of hypo-allergenic stainless steel casesand buckles, which alsomakes them the safest andamong the most durablewatches on the market.”

The watches come in wellknown Disney characterthemes for boys and girls,

including: current themesfrom the Disney Pixar Carsmovies with the popular talk-ing cars; Disney Princess Cas-tle favorites Cinderella andSleeping Beauty; Toy Storywith Woody and BuzzLightyear; and the Disney clas-sics, Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

The inflight collections arepresented in Disney tin boxes,which serve as a storage box andas a keepsake. The instore col-lections are presented in win-dow boxes that are presented ona special Disney counter spinner.

Since most of Gerzon’s collections are air-line travel retail exclusives, the companysays it has successfully separated itself fromstandard domestic collections. Gerzon paysa lot of attention to packaging, with all boxesdesigned especially for its inflight sales.

Part of Gerzon’s new“Disney Time Teachers”collection, this children’swatch featuring Disney

princess Cinderella usessafer materials, such as

hypo-allergenicstainless steel

The breo Dropincorporates aquality mineral

crystal face andis currently

availableexclusively to

travel retail

First time a charm forTateossianLondon-based jewelry and accessory brandTateossian has experienced positive sales so farthis year. Looking to develop its duty free busi-ness further, the brand is on the hunt for newairlines and airports.

The company recently announced an exclu-sive listing and collaboration with Japan’s AllNippon Airways (ANA). The collection involvedwill feature three classic pieces, including anonyx, sodalite and black rutilated quartz semi-precious stone bracelet and cufflinks withSwarovski elements.

“I’ve always strived to create a line of jew-elry and accessories for men and women thatreflect my own personal ethos—stylish, uniqueand uncompromising quality,” says creatorRobert Tateossian. “For the Tateossian cus-tomer, quality is key.”

Attending this year’s TFWA WE in Cannes,Tateossian will be introducing its Rotondo Guil-loche—an ultra slim, stainless steel timepiecewith a repetitive architectural pattern used mostcommonly in classical Rome and Greece. Thisnew style is available in silver or rose gold.

Also set to be launched is the Free Time col-lection, a series of black polycarbonate watcheswith brightly colored dials.

Tateossian’s new “RotondoGuillouche” watch in silver,featuring an architecturalpattern reminiscent ofancient Greece and Rome

A model from Tateossian’s new “Free Time”collection is made from black polycarbonate and features a bright green dial

Child’s play for Gerzon

Breo set to drop a new timepiece

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:43 PM

Watch News


HansEulenhoefer,

ManagingDirector

of the HarstonGroup

Greek jewelry and accessory company Folli Follie isenjoying its success in Asia, but the company isn’tcoasting; Folli Follie says that it plans to seek fur-ther expansion on a global level by focusing onAsia, especially China, and the Americas in both localand travel retail.

Looking to Europe, Folli Follie’s travel retailperformance has increasedthis year—specifically inGreece—compared with the

same period in 2011. Onefactor is probably the

company’s experi-enced designteam, which con-sists of top Ital-ian, Swiss and

Greek designers.“Our design-

ers’ goal is not onlyto maintain a fashion

orientation complement-ing the prevalent fashion

trends, but also to set them,translating fashion into dailylife and offering special char-acteristic fashion tips with the

signature of Folli Follie,” says aspokesperson for the brand.

Folli Follie will be participatingin this year’s TFWA World Exhibi-

tion in Cannes where it plans to present visuals forthe latest Fall/Winter 2012 ad campaign featuring GaileLai, Folli Follie’s Global brand ambassador.

Also set for launch is a selection from the lat-est Fall/Winter collection of jewelry, watches andaccessories. Links of London, the other flagshipbrand of Folli Follie group, will be featured in thecompany’s booth where classic selections of theSweetie, Friendship and Selene watches will be avail-able alongside a notable range of charms.

Folli Follie is also set to reveal its new Fireworkscollection, which features watches with discreet dialsthat bear four minimal crystal stones.

Inspired by the lunar eclipse, the new Lunawatch collection that is also set to be launched fea-tures an unusual “dial-inside-another-dial” design.The collection also sets a trend dominated by mono-chrome, dark, “back to black” options for the win-ter season. The Lunar watch is available in a plainversion, or decorated with crystals or black stones.

The brand will be displaying the new Phoebewatches from Links of London, a collection of ceramicwatches in black, white and brown with a motherof pearl dial and stainless steel or rose gold plate detail-ing. Designs with white or pink sapphires encrustedin the dial serve as the “ultra luxury” option with quartzchronograph movement and date function.

Also new from Links of London and set forreveal is the Noble Classic collection for men thattakes its accents from the past with quartz or auto-matic movements.

Design dominates for Folli Follie

A men’s automatic bracelet model and ladies’rose gold PVD diamond set bracelet model

from Rotary’s “Verbier” collection

Rotary Watches, the family-owned andrun Swiss watch company, is set to pre-sent a new Swiss-made collection ofladies’ and men’s timepieces at thisyear’s TFWA WE.

Consisting of a capsule collection ofeight bracelet models, the “Verbier” col-lection comprises four men’s automaticmodels and four ladies’ models, includ-ing a rose gold PVD ladies’ diamond setmodel. “This collection fuses timelessstyling with contemporary watch crafts-manship, providing the perfect gift,” saysRohanne Collis, European Marketingand Sales Manager, Rotary Watches.

Rotary will also be launching the RotaryLes Originales “Jura” collection, which issignificant for the brand, given that theSwiss made collection is assembled usingRotary Watches’ first collection of pro-prietary movements, Caliber R.1000.21.

“This is a major landmark in our 117-year history,” says Collis. “It demon-strates that we are movement manu-facturers unlike many of our higher-endpeer group—going back to our originalroots of pure ebauche assembly.”

These new models are all automat-ics, with sapphire glass on the frontand back. Each timepiece features 21jewels within the movement for highprecision. Collis says that along with itsnew products, the company is alsolooking forward to show-casing its new space-maximizing island dis-play unit at TFWE,designed specifically withairports in mind.

Rotary turns back time

Timex countson HarstonGroupTimex, one of the world’s largest watchmakers, has signed a strategic partnershipwith the Harston Group, an internationaltravel retail specialist, to handle the distri-bution of Timex products in the duty freemarket.

The Harston Group is a group of com-panies that specializes in the travel retailsector and has represented companies induty free and travel retail for over a decade.Currently it carries a broad range of prod-ucts in its portfolio including well-knownbrands in eyewear, watches and jewelry—and now Timex.

The agreement, which takes effect imme-diately, covers the entire duty free marketworldwide with the exception of the US,Canada, UAE, Qatar and China, where agree-ments already exist.

“Timex is absolutely delighted to teamup with the Harston Group, a company witha proven track record in the travel retailindustry,” says Chief Operating Officer ofGlobal Business Development at TimexGroup USA, Kapil Kapoor. “We look forwardto working with its team to further build theTimex brand and reach out to a broader setof customers.”

Hans Eulenhoefer, Managing Director ofthe Harston Group, agrees: “Timex has def-initely earned a place in the watch world.There’s no denying its strong presence in themarketplace but the potential for more growthis there. We at the Harston Group are totallycommitted to their success.”

Both companies are currently engaged inthe transition process and feel optimisticabout the coming months.

A stainless steel rose gold platebracelet men’swatch from Links of London’s NobleClassic collection

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:43 PM

to touch your heartFrédérique Const ant and Nicole Faria share one passion: Supporting the International Children’s Heart Foundation. We will donate the cost of a life-saving heart scan for each Frédérique Const ant Double Heart Beat watch sold.

Contact . + 41 22 860 0440 www.frederique-const ant.com

Made by hand

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:43 PM

Swarovski

two years after Swarovski first made itsdebut in the men’s jewelry market.The new lines echo previouscollections, with whatSwarovski describes asedgy themes and con-temporary styles.Dark-toned crystal isused, worked in fili-gree and paired withmaterials such as leatherand metal.

Heading up the range is the“Sinous” leather bracelet shaped like a snake,featuring a cobra rendered in groovedmatt stainless steel with a head cov-ered in black pavé crystal. Thedesign is also available on a pen-dant, with the snake reworkedin a corkscrew shape. The crosssymbol dominates the “Somber”

line, suspended from a black PVD chain—theassociated ring in stainless steel features twosections of black pavé mini-crystals and a lilymotif outlined in pavé crystal on a black base.

The “N the skull” pendant reappears fromprevious collections, this time sporting ear-phones. And the “Sympathy” lucky charmbracelet offers a combination of strung beadsin dark brown wood and gray crystal ceramic,hand-applied using Swarovski’s “Pointiage”technique with a ruthenium finish. All linesare rounded out with associated key rings,bracelets or pendants in various sizes. A USBkey is also available.

Swarovski has also introduced a line ofleather accessories in soft lambskin with abicolor ribbon in black and orange, whichties into the Octea Abyssal flagship piecefrom the new men’s watch collection launchedlast year.

“Men’s jewelry I think is a stable seg-ment of the market,” Zottl says.

“This is new to us and we wantto tap into it—just like with

cosmetics and skincare likeL’Oréal is doing. We’re alsotrying to open up the mar-ket to men.” Zottl says thatit will be interesting towatch how this new foray

into men’s jewelry andwatches develops, given the

brand’s strong footprint on thewomen’s side.

Distribution is growing rapidly,with branded stores appearing in the

growing Asia market as well as in theAmericas. “As far as we observe, the Chinesetraveler prefers fine and delicate designs,”Zottl says. “Some like traditional designs.

Anything in a circle goes well with these cus-tomers as it’s part of the Chinese design

language.” More broadly, Zottl notesthe importance of the self-serviceoption in high-traffic travel retaillocations, where customers don’thave a lot of loiter time.

Asia and the Americas are the topperformers for Swarovski, Zottl says,helping to underpin double-digitgrowth rates. He believes the remain-der of the year will continue on an

upbeat note and will weathersome of the insecurities

manifesting themselvesin European markets.Percentage-wise, LatinAmerica is showing thestrongest growth. �

warovski’s recently launched fash-ion jewelry brand lola&grace, tar-geted at teenage customers, pre-sented its Summer 2012 range inMay. The offering includes a sea-

sonal collection based on mixed fabrics,strong patterning and summer hues, offer-ing designs ranging from tribal to candystripes and hardware, with stacked bangles,layered necklaces and rings.

The lola&grace “Festival Fever” rangefeatures a laid back, eclectic look using mixedmaterials and clashing prints. Bold turquoiseis heavily employed in tribal elements andwishbone shapes, with Aztec designs, polkadots and Paisley prints teamed with pearlsand multiple chains. The look is highlightedwith Swarovski crystal in turquoise, deepblue, burnt orange, khaki and pastel accents.

The “Global Friendship” line offers friend-ship inspired bracelets intertwined with col-ors of burnt orange, yellow, deep blue andemerald green, utilizing mixed materials,rope details and Swarovski crystals.

“Lola&grace is a brand on its own, whichwe launched for the young market at entryvalue,” says Peter Zottl, Vice President TravelRetail, Swarovski. “It’s nice, modern jewelry.We’re starting to test with the first store in theUK offering a full assortment of the brand.”

Swarovski has also premiered a new men’sjewelry and accessories collection forFall/Winter 2012/2013. The collection appears

SSwarovski: new brands and new men’s products drive success in travel retail

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Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:44 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:44 PM

F or Eva Yu, Managing DirectorTravel Retail Asia Pacific, L’OréalLuxe, the China market is rapidly

emerging as the key to success in Asia. Thepercentage of Chinese customers is rising inmost Asian countries, and their high inter-est in skincare products is driving the mar-ket right now. “The Chinese communityhas developed a strong culture in giftingand shopping for friends and relatives,hence encouraging high average basket ver-sus other nationalities,” Yu says. Under-standing the shopping behavior of the Chi-nese traveler is crucial and the brand isacquiring that knowledge through stafftraining, market research and close com-munication with local market subsidiaries.

Despite the positive impact of the Chineseconsumer, overall there’s been a slowdownin Asia Pacific traffic and the economicprospects in some countries in the regionremain clouded. Nonetheless, Yu and hercolleagues believe huge potential upside canbe unlocked by reaching out to the Chineseconsumer, improving service levels, and byscheduling more openings and new productlaunches through the remainder of 2012.

Point of sale impact is an essential part ofthe mix, and Yu says that POS work has beencentral across L’Oréal Luxe’s brand portfolio.In September, Lancôme Absolue Extrait setup its new podium at Beijing Airport Terminal3. The 40-square-meter “La Maison Absolue”is the largest scale airport podium ever, Yu says,

and provides cus-tomers with top-of-the-line personalizedservices.

The approach toLancôme gives someinsight into L’OréalLuxe’s approach toall its priority brands.For the

L’Oréal Luxe buildsAsian success with

an aggressiveschedule

of new productlaunches

BY HIBAH NOOR

L’Oréal Group

Launching luxury

Ralph Lauren’s Big Pony Fragrance Collection For Women promotion was held in Singapore’s Changi Airport (bottom) and at Taiwan Tao Yuan International Airport

Asian market, Yu says, the main objective isto sustain the presence of brands likeLancôme and Kiehl’s while also securingleadership of the market in the men’s skin-care category.

“In the case of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL),we’ll consolidate the brand’s position as anall-rounded three-axis beauty brand by con-tinuing the story we’ve begun this year onskincare and building consumer awarenessupon its strong makeup and fragrance back-ground,” Yu says. “With the upcoming localmarket launches in Korea and China, weperceive a huge opportunity ahead of us.”

With its solid and longstanding heritagein Japanese art and aesthetics, the ShuUemura brand is taking an increasing shareof the beauty market as a diversification ofMU brands into skincare takes place, enablingthe brand to offer customers a one-stop,start-to-finish total beauty experience fin-ish, Yu says. “Shu Uemura is a key player inthis respect with its image as a professionalmakeup artist brand which blossoms withthe holistic philosophy that beautiful makeupstarts with beautiful skin. As Greater China


Asia-2012-October-v12 10/02/12 4:30 PM

customers become increasingly sophisti-cated and knowledgeable in makeup needs,we look forward to seeing substantial growthof Shu Uemura in this budding region.”

Yu says that L’Oréal Luxe plans to ride onthe successful flagship approach of fashionhouse Giorgio Armani to further develop thebrand in the high-end luxury space. When itcomes to the premium skincare segment, theHelena Rubinstein anti-aging expert posi-tioning continues to bear fruit, Yu says, andit will undoubtedly help that 2012 is the 110thanniversary of the beauty brand—a goodopportunity to reinforce its market pull.

“With the promising launch results ofour fragrances in the first half year, we’reconfident in accelerating the sales perfor-mance of Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armaniperfumes further,” says Yu. From an Asian per-spective, that confidence is reinforced by thefact that L’Oréal Luxe has outperformed theAsian travel retail market so far this year.

Maximum momentumThat performance reflects a series of suc-cessful launches that have taken place overrecent months. At the beginning of 2012,Lancôme kicked things off with the SuperSerum feature in January, which saw sizeableinvestments in major Asian airports. Theinitiative was a great success, Yu says, witha significant growth in market share in theskincare category for first half of the year.

Shu Uemura’s launch of a collaborationwith the artist Mamechiyo featured limitededition designs of the brand’s best-sellingproducts, Cleansing Oil and UV Under BaseMousse. Staged throughout Asia from Marchto May, the collaboration garnered an enthu-siastic customer response for the collection.“It is encouraging to see the product offer-ing of Mamechiyo grow two times biggerthan last year’s artist collaboration,” says Yu.

Kiehl’s new brightening skincare collec-tion, Clearly Corrective, is based on the newhigh-powered clarifying ingredient, “ActivatedC”, which Kiehl’s says rapidly corrects darkspots, discolorations and uneven skin tone.The successful launch of the new productresulted in Clearly Corrective Dark SpotSolution being chosen as oneof the top 10 customerfavorites by Kiehl’scustomers in anumber ofmarkets.

The skin-care cate-

gory received a tremendous boost with thelaunch of YSL Forever Youth Liberator, aninnovation based on skin glycobiology. Yusays the debut doubled the skincare category’sgrowth over last year.

There was even more on the agenda.“The successful launch of Big Pony Womenby Polo Ralph Lauren in April was defi-nitely our biggest perfume launch year todate,” Yu says. “We’ve received a lot of highlypositive feedback from retailers and cus-tomers who enjoyed our unique, colorful andplayful merchandising concept replicatingthe polo game in an outdoorsy setup.”

The promotional angle hasn’t beenneglected. In addition to the LancômeAbsolue L’Extrait podium at Beijing Air-port Terminal 3 mentioned earlier, Yu saysthat L’Oréal Luxe has been busy renovatingand revamping its top 30 Asian travel retaildoors by implementing the “La MaisonLancôme” retail design concept.

In addition, Biotherm Homme is stagingits “Live like a Man” campaign through thesecond half of the year, focusing on therecruitment of new users and the re-promotion of the brand’s corefranchises, leaning heav-ily on the digitalpanache the brand hasdeveloped.

And in June, Giorgio Armanicosmetics was launched in SingaporeDFS Scottswalk, where the newSoutheast Asia flagship is located, Yusays. “To support this strategic open-ing, we organized a press event withtop local media. We’ve received verypositive turnout and incredible sup-port from journalists and bloggerswho anticipate the huge potential ofGiorgio Armani cosmetics.”

It’s a busy enough picture, but itwill get even busier thanks toL’Oréal’s acquisition of Clarisonicat the beginning of 2013. Clarisonicspecializes in sonic skincare devices,topical and technology. The brandwill be launched in Asian travelretail next year, Yu says. “I’m con-

fident that the rollout of the brand in Asiawill bring additional success to our business.”

Clarisonic is a strategic acquisition forL’Oréal, says Nicolas Hiéronimus, Manag-ing Director of L’Oréal Luxe Worldwide.“Devices are emerging globally as an impor-tant new skincare category. Clarisonic is themost successful and fast growing premiumbrand in this category and we will roll itout internationally as well as enhance our ser-vice experience in our luxury counters.”

The tech touchYu says that L’Oréal Luxe has good depthwhen it comes to the use of digital technol-ogy in promoting its lineup. “We frequentlyintroduce the latest technologies such asthe iPad and iPod Touch skin analyzer toimprove consultation quality, sales services,and digital initiatives to improve the train-ing of beauty advisors,” she says.

Yu singles out YSL as one of the house’smore tech-savvy brands. “The brand hasstrong digital initiatives to interact with the

consumers,” she says. One example isthe use of the iPad platform in

accessing the YSL “MyYouth Index”

application

Eva Yu, ManagingDirector Travel

Retail Asia Pacific,L’Oréal Luxe

L’Oréal recentlyacquired

Clarisonic, whichspecializes

in sonic skincare devices, topical and technology


Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:45 PM


for skincare consultation, and the “ColorMirror” application for virtual makeup tri-als. “Our new concept stores will also installthe digital YSL Brand Book to showcase theessence of YSL beauty,” Yu says.

Kiehl’s is another standout on the tech-nology front, Yu says, noting its “I LoveKiehl’s Learning” application, which hasbeen developed to promote communitybuilding and interactive learning amongKiehl’s Customer Representatives (KCRs).The application program features informa-tion on new launches and star products,selling techniques and merchandising guide-lines, and enables KCRs to learn about thebrand over an iPod Touch.

Yu reiterates that Greater China is a boom-ing market for L’Oréal Luxe’s product range,thanks to the surging numbers of affluent out-bound Chinese passengers with high pur-chasing power and an interest in luxury cos-metics products. “We believe it’s importantto be relevant and familiar to Chinese trav-elers in terms of product assortments, prices,communication and services,” Yu says. “Exam-ples are the dramatic increase in the ratio ofChinese-speaking beauty advisors in theentire region, specific training on servingmainland Chinese customers and consulta-tion with affinity to their languages.”

Yu says that L’Oréal Luxe has a full slateof second-semester launches ready to go,covering the Lancôme, Kiehl’s, Biotherm, ShuUemura, YSL and Giorgio Armani lines.

Lancôme launched Genifique Yeux LightPearl Eye Illuminating Youth Activator inSeptember. “It’s a logical extension of theanti-aging legend of Génifique by revealinga smoother, bigger and brighter gaze on thefragile eye zone,” Yu says. “Presenting a totallynew sensual experience, the product fea-tures a genuine innovation in the applicationprocedure with an avant-garde ‘pearl appli-cator’ that enables special eye zone mas-sages.” Yu says that this represents a true

market differentia-tor for the product.

La vie est belle isanother highlight,Yu says, describingthe new women’sfragrance as “a dec-laration of thebeauty of life.” The fragrance contains almost50% natural ingredients and so is beingpromoted as the most exceptional fragrancefrom Lancôme. The launch of La vie estbelle, which is positioned right after Trésorin the Lancôme portfolio, is a “focused andstrategic” move that has been undertakenwith a view to placing Lancôme in the topranks of the fragrance category.

Under the Kiehl’s banner, an exclusiveAsia-Pacific travel retail launch is plannedto position Rosa Arctica Youth Regenerat-ing Cream and Eye Balm as an advanced anti-aging skincare range based on its rare “Regen-eration Flower” ingredient.

Driven to innovateBiotherm’s main play right now is its ForceSupreme Youth Architect Serum. Yu saysthis product is being advanced as the firstanti-aging Homme serum which targetsand rebuilds damaged skin structure. “Thisproduct is a genuine innovation in maleskincare,” Yu says. A strategic approach isbeing adopted for Biotherm, the numberone global brand in men’s selective skin-care. Yu says this makes it ideal for the travelretail market, where men represent a largershare of the traveling population. “Travelretail is the right place to target these maletravelers and to increase penetration withsuch an inspirational brand.”

Next on the list is Shu Uemura. For the sec-ond semester Tsuya Skin Youth Infusing Con-centrate will be center stage. Tsuya is Japan-ese for “flawless skin,” and the product promises“petal-soft and porcelain-fine skin” after seven

days of contin-uous use,through theuse of rham-nose moleculetechnology to‘switch on’ theregenerativeabilities of skincells. “Thistruly marks a

turning pointfor the brand, from a ‘makeup artist’ brand toa ‘global beauty expert brand,’” Yu says.

Shu Uemura’s holiday collection is duefor launch in November, with the collabo-rating artist none other than the fashionguru Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld has a histor-ical connection with Shu Uemura makeup,having used the products to sketch his fash-ion designs. He’s created a ‘mon Shu Uemura’girl motif for the makeup collection, featuringShu Uemura products such as CleansingOil, UV Underbase, Eyelash Curler and eyeand cheek palettes.

For YSL, 2012 is shaping up to be a mem-orable year thanks to the 20th anniversary ofTouche Eclat. This global best seller in travelretail serves as an emblematic all-season“nomade” product. This year an Illuminat-ing Foundation will be launched to celebratethe anniversary. This liquid foundation buildson Touche Eclat’s success with a lightweightformula free of opaque filler and bolstered witha new complex that endows skin with a “del-icate golden glow on skin, divine as sun-light.” The formula eliminates imperfectionswhile enhancing the skin’s natural luster.

The second semester saw a crucial launchwith the premiere of Giorgio Armani’s AquaDi Gio Essenza in August. This “over-whelmingly intense and luxurious” Eau deParfum serves as a reinterpretation of oneof the top men’s fragrances. “With thislaunch, Giorgio Armani continues to buildthe worldwide success story of Acqua DiGio, which is at the heart of the brand DNA,”Yu says. “Without doubt, this is going to bea major launch worldwide.” c

L’Oréal Group

L’Oréal will behighlightingLancôme’s La vieest belle duringthe TFWA WorldExhibition inCannes

Biotherm’s expansive display indowntown shop Hong Kong Sun Plaza

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:46 PM

in France

No.1BEAUTY CARE**

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:46 PM

Shiseido


The Asian market has long beenknown for the value it places onskincare. For Japan’s premiumbeauty house Shiseido, therefore,

understanding the Asian market and itsconsumer is the key to success.

“If you look at the Asian trend comparedto the European trend, Asians start anti-aging very young,” says Eyan Chang,Regional Marketing Manager, Shi-seido. “You have customers as youngas in their 20s coming into ourstores for anti-aging creams.They look at preventionrather than protection.”

Chang explains that theAsian consumer makespurchases based on theirdesire to prevent or actu-ally delay the agingprocess altogether.

“It’s very differentfrom the European mar-ket—that’s why when youlook at a European con-sumer of the same age as onein the Asian market, the Asianconsumer will look relativelyyounger than a European consumer,because of their early awareness ofskin issues. That’s always been the case inAsia—that’s the Asian consumer mental-ity,” Chang explains.

This is why Shiseido has always approachedthe Asian market with a focus on skincare, andwhy skincare has always been the business dri-ver for the brand’s travel retail sector. As thenumber of customers who can afford to pur-chase premium skincare rises, the demand forpremium products in the Asia market hasincreased correspondingly.

“We have that group of customers whoare aware that there are premium brandswithin the store, so they actually come andask, ‘what is the most expensive productthat you have?’” says Chang.

Shiseido must ensure its stores—both inairports and downtown—are able to meetthe premium needs of this new demographic.

“If you look at downtown counters, espe-cially the new ones coming up in HongKong like DFS Hysan, the concept of the storeis more premium,” explains Chang. “Thelook is more premium and the premiumbrands actually offer more sit-downs. The

concept of the counters is more welcomingso that consumers can stay longer whichoften results in an increase in number ofitems per transaction.”

Catching upThat’s not to say the airport stores aren’tdoing well for the brand. “We offer the pre-mium brands in the airport. We also have pre-mium customers that if they don’t have anopportunity to purchase at a downtown storewill pick up their purchases at the airport.”

Unlike downtown stores where customers

have the freedom to compare prices withnearby local market stores, the airport shopsexist in a contained environment that does-n’t allow for that option. This is a plus forShiseido from a sales perspective.

In addition to offering more premiumproducts and developing travel retail exclu-sives, Shiseido continues to focus on its

main sales drivers in the Asian market—anti-aging and seasonal skincare.

“In the first half of the year we’llsee of course whitening and sun

care being the key drivers.Nowadays people are very

concerned about sun spotsand it has become a basicnecessity when you talkabout skincare,” explainsChang. “Shiseido sun-care has always beenquite strong in our skin-care line.”

“Come year-end, withthe weather shift in colder

climates, we will move intoanti-aging and offer much

richer textured creams,” saysChang.To further understand its con-

sumer, Shiseido devotes major resourcesto research, with a team of approximately

2,000 researchers working and developingShiseido products. “It’s not only improvingon the texture and obviously the existingproducts, but also new innovations thatcould cater to prevailing or new problemsthat may emerge in the current age group,”says Chang.

With the company currently experienc-ing double digit growth coming from thegreater China region—a trend that has beencontinuous for the past two years—Changfeels the same region may continue to offerthe greatest growth for the brand movinginto 2013.

At this year’s TFWA World Exhibition, Shi-seido will feature the Future Solution LXline which has just recently signed on actressJennifer Connelly as the spokesperson. c

Skin supremacy Shiseido’s on a roll in Asia as it zeroes in on a new premium-friendlyconsumer demographic BY MELISSA SILVA

Bio-Performance Advanced Super Restoring Creamincludes Shiseido’s exclusive ingredient Bio-RenewalComplex that rejuvenates, lifts and smoothes

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:46 PM

A radiantglow p. 63 New and

renewed p. 67 The colorfield p. 69 The fountain

of youth p. 71

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New for 2013, �� pres-ents an exclusive Skincare & Cosmet-ics Supplement that will have bonusdistribution at the 2013 TFWA AP ex-hibition in Singapore.

The Skincare & Cosmetics Supplementis dedicated to bringing readers themost current news for all things beauty-related. With in-depth reports on thebiggest brands and up-and-comersalike, as well as unparalleled cover-age on innovation and trends, there isno doubt that the 2013 Skincare &Cosmetics Supplement will provideboth buyers and suppliers with an in-side perspective on the shimmeringcategory.

Editorial Highlights:• Feature Report: Asian retailers and

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of the year ahead in cosmetics• Beauty News: What’s new and

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haves from top brands

For more information on how to participate, please contact:

62 GULF-AFRICA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2011

Traveller Limited, a renowned in-flight ser-vices company within the well-established50-year-old Chalhoub Group, has two impor-tant announcements to make: it has begunproviding its services to Pakistan InternationalAirways (PIA) and has signed a distributiondeal with Shiseido, the Japaneseskincare and cosmetics companythat is a fixture in the most exclusiveskincare establishments.

Although Traveller is geared to air-lines in Middle East, it also dealswith non-Middle Eastern but regionalbased airlines. Traveller Limited’sGeneral Manager, Rami Madi, saysthat two years ago it began servic-ing airlines based in Iran, both MahanAir and Iran Air, followed by PIA thisyear. Part of Traveller’s strategy is to ana-lyze the passenger profile of airlines beforeoffering it specific products anyway.

“We are open to working with all the air-lines in the Middle East and the Near East,”Madi says. “Doing business with PIA was justanother step for us… we are confident ournew associations will flourish.”

The Shiseido deal is pegged to distrib-uting the well-known skincare and cos-metics company’s products on airlines in theMideast. Shiseido, which is publicly listed,

started in Japan in 1872, and today oper-ates worldwide, with centers in severalEuropean cities as well. It was born inTokyo’s Ginza district as Japan’s first West-ern-style pharmacy, at a time when herbal

medicine was the norm, founded by the23-year-old chief pharmacist of a navy hos-pital, Arinobu Kukuhara. He picked thename from the famous Chinese book offortune telling Yi Ching.

The addition of Shiseido to Traveller’scoterie of renowned products is anotherfeather in its cap, as it continues to strengthenits reputation of being the preferred and

reliable choice for airlines in the Mideastregion. It provides brands with support interms of implementing a marketing calen-dar for the supplier and only offers productsto airlines after identifying and analyzingpassenger profiles. It also helps in design-ing and implementing onboard sales pro-cedures and then monitors the performanceof the product.

Clinique introduces a new foundation that cre-ates a flawless complexion, softening theappearance of lines and wrinkles immediatelyand over time, and working to prevent thevisible signs of aging.

The new Clinique Repairwear Laser FocusAll-Smooth Makeup SPF 15 incorporatesClinique's advanced patented technologyfrom its powerhouse de-aging serum, Repair-wear Laser Focus Wrinkle & UV DamageCorrector. The result is an ultimate de-agingfoundation that softens lines and coversimperfections.

Repairwear Laser Focus All-SmoothMakeup SPF 15 is also formulated withingredients that prevent and repair visible UVdamage, one of the leading culprits of linesand wrinkles. This foundation addressespast UV damage, with Ultrasomes that grad-

ually and visibly help repair damage result-ing from direct UV exposure.

A cocktail of ingredients works to minimizethe appearance of damage. Whey Proteinhelps minimize the appearance of lines andwrinkles, while Siegesbeckia Orientalis Extractand Palimitoyl Oligopeptide help to plump upand fill in lines.

Supporting ingredients to protect the skininclude Vitamin E to provide antioxidant pro-tection and SPF 15 to help protect skin fromfuture UV damage.

Taking a 360° approach to age preven-tion, Repairwear Laser Focus All-SmoothMakeup SPF 15 will improve the texture ofthe skin while working to prevent futuredamage. The foundation is available at Clin-ique travel retail locations in Europe, theMiddle East and Africa.

Traveller signs PIA, Shiseido deals

Estée Lauder introduces Clinique RepairwearLaser Focus All-Smooth Makeup SPF 15

Skincare News

Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Resist 24 Day Cream SPF 15

Shiseido Bio-PerformanceSuper CorrectiveSerum

Company News: Estée Lauder

From left: Toni Lakis, Vice President of Creative atMAC Cosmetics, James Gager, Senior Vice President,

Group Creative Director for MAC, La Mer and JoMalone Worldwide and Jennifer Balbier, Senior Vice

President, Global Product Development, ArtistryBrands, The Estée Lauder Companies

MAC’s Pop-Upstore in Soho,

New York

Americas Duty Free joins MAC at its Pop-UpStore in Soho to feel the power of its newWonder Woman collection BY HIBAH NOOR

86 THE AMERICAS DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING MARCH/ APRIL 2011

MAC has unveiled an exciting new limited edi-

tion collection inspired by the legendary hero-ine Wonder Woman. The highly anticipated col-lection was recently presented to journalists invited

to a special launch at the brand’s popular location in Soho, New York.“The iconic super heroine reminds us that within every woman

there’s the mighty Aphrodite full of courage, confidence andgreat charisma,” said James Gager, Senior Vice President, GroupCreative Director for MAC, La Mer and Jo Malone Worldwide.

With its legendary new line up, MAC takes us on an exotictrip to Wonder Woman’s home of Paradise Island. Includedin the collection is super-sized Mineralize Skinfinish, bold Eye Shadowquads, Pigment, Opulash, Lipsticks and oversized Lipglass, jumbo-big Pow-der Blush and Penultimate Eye Liner, Nail Lacquer and Lash inspired bythe larger-than-life bold babe.

Channelling the iconic heroine’s beautiful Paradise Island, MAC’s Pop-Up shop was transformed with bright red furniture, Wonder Woman look-alike models for makeup demonstrations, Wonder Woman comic books andother bold, eccentric decor.

Giving journalists a peek into the behind-the-scenes development of thenew line were representatives of MAC’s Senior Creative Team, including Gager,Jennifer Balbier, Senior Vice President, Global Product Development,Artistry Brands, The Estée Lauder Companies; and Toni Lakis, Vice Presi-dent of Creative at MAC Cosmetics.

The super-size makeup, combined with red, blue, yellow and gold outerpackaging, symbolizes the strength of the Amazon princess. As Gagerexplained, “The collection shows you the power and force of a woman. That’sone of the reasons that we feel this collection is even more relevant today.We have this amazing powerful woman Michelle Obama who is changingstyle... the women of Estée Lauder, women who run iconic companies.”

“In this collection we were lucky enough to release our own comic,”continued Gager. “We worked with an outside illustrator and a writer andwrote a little story on Wonder Woman. The whole story line is thatWonder Woman arrives in her little jet and sees all these gray looking ladiesand she’s really disturbed by this. She learns that Medusa has begun tocapture all these ladies and is turning them into “plain Janes.” WonderWoman arrives with her full collection of MAC Wonder Woman and usesher powers to make the world and women beautiful again.”

The collection works with every skin tone and can go from‘uber’ intense to really sheer.

Accessories such as makeup bags comein red and bulletproof blue.

The range was being sold exclusively atthe New York City Spring Street Pop-Upstore from January 27 through Febru-ary 10, when it debuted at all MAC loca-tions in North America. On March 1, thecollection was launchedinternationally, includingtravel retail. �

A glimpse of MAC’slimited edition Wonder

Woman collection

Hibah NoorEditor-In-ChiefT: +1 905 821 3344 x. 29F: +1 905 821 2777E: [email protected]

Ryan WhiteConcessions, Liquor & Tobacco EditorT: +1 905 821 3344 x. 25F: +1 905 821 2777E: [email protected]

Melissa SilvaAssociate EditorT: +1 905 821 3344 x. 23 F: +1 905 821 2777E: [email protected]

Kim CarreraAdvertising & Marketing ManagerT: +1 905 821 3344 x. 30F: +1 905 821 2777E: [email protected]

Beauty Beat: Skincare & Cosmetics

92 THE AMERICAS DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING MARCH/ APRIL 2011

Sun Care Milk-LotionSpray SPF50+ and SunWrinkle Control Cream forFace SPF50+ by ClarinsCompany: Essence Corp.Description: Achieving a goldentan while preserving the long-termhealth and beauty of skin hasalways been the Clarins sun carephilosophy. Clarins goes furtherwith two new, high protection (SPF50+) products for face and body,formulated to protect the mostdelicate skin in intense sunlight.Launches spring 2011 in travelretail the Americas and theCaribbean

Extra-Firming BodyCream and Lotion byClarinsCompany : Essence Corp.Description: A complete skincare action to ensure youthful-looking body contours thanksto firming and replenishing benefits. Skin is soft,firm, hydrated and visibly younger-looking, witha choice of two different textures to satisfy allwomen whatever their preference, skin type orseason. Launches in spring 2011 in travel retailin the Americas and the Caribbean

Facial Fuel Age CombatCompany: Kiehl’s, ParbelDescription: Facial Fuel Age Combat is arevitalizing oil-free moisture gel in an easily-absorbed, lightweight formula made from ablend of active, naturally-derived ingredientsthat help to visibly firm skin under the neck anddiminish the appearance of fine lines, whileimproving skin’s tonicity for a firmer, brighterand smoother appearance

Belvada Mascara NoirCompany: Belvada CosmeticsDescription: Unlike conventionalmascaras, with the new Belvadapackage the reserve product isnever exposed to the elements,only the brush and the producton the brush are exposed. Thebottle remains closed and thereservoir material is kept fresh.The mascara is also pushed on tothe brush via a plunger, thisensures that virtually all themascara is used

Source Defense SerumCompany: BvlgariDescription: This cell-energybooster is designed toneutralize the effects ofaging at its source bypreserving mitochondria,the sole source of cellenergy. Combined witha powerful anti-oxidant,this high-performanceanti-aging weaponpreserves skin’syouthfulness capital

Rouge Pur CoutureCompany: Yves Saint Laurent, ParbelDescription: A new-generation lipstickinspired by Monsieur Saint Laurent’s iconiccolor palette – red, fuchsia and orange – in acollection of captivating couture shades thatoffer each complexion a customized look.Lips are saturated with intense, stay-truecolor, thanks to the Coloreveal Technology,while natural extracts provide comfortingmoisture that lasts all day

New Absolu Voyage Rose paletteCompany: Lancôme, ParbelDescription: The black lacqueredcollectible box decorated with a rosecarries a concealer, powder compact,blusher, six eye shadows, a blackkhôl eyeliner and the Virtuôsemascara. For the lips the setcontains three lipsticks and amini lip pencil. To complete thecompact there’s an extra-largemirror and four professional-sizedaccessories (a lip brush, an eyeshadow brush, a powder brush anda powder puff)

Phyto Star Eyes PaletteCompany: Sisley ParisDescription: The new “gun metal” versionoffers four luminous and dazzling shadesthat can be used alone or combined for a

natural or more sophisticated look. Thecolors include white pearl, black star,

silver moon and blue lagoon

Company News: L’Oréal Consumer Products

66 GULF-AFRICA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2011

ur major development in the Middle East has been get-ting The Body Shop brand into the airport stores,”says Jacques Berger, Travel Retail Marketing Director,L’Oréal Consumer Products. “In the Middle East we haveintroduced The Body Shop brand in some new coun-

tries like Jordan and Egypt and will introduce it in Lebanon very soon.“The Body Shop is available worldwide in 150 countries.” The

brand is also in the local market in 66 countries and in 2,500 stand-alone stores worldwide, Berger adds.

“We hesitated a little bit about what to put on the shelves at first,”Berger says, “but after a while we discovered that the retailers preferthe body butters and all the body products. This is the way to hookthe consumers.”

The Body Shop brand is especially well suited for gifting, Berger says.The “Create Your Own” concept, introduced last October, allows theconsumer to create their own tailored gift set by picking two Body Shopproducts and then receiving a third complimentary product. Thecomplimentary item can be a mini shower gel or mini body butter.

In addition to The Body Shop, L’Oréal Consumer Products han-dles Roger Gallet, Maybelline and L’Oréal Paris. The latter is a goodpartner for The Body Shop, according to Berger: in fact The Body Shopwas first introduced to the Middle East market following on the suc-cess that the L’Oréal Paris brand enjoyed there.

“The link between The Body Shop and L’Oréal Paris lies in the factthat they are two affordable brands which are in the airports to attractnew consumers,” he says. “The idea is to bring additional business to theoperators.” Travel retail remains an ideal market for luxury products, andBerger believes that because more and more people are traveling, oper-ators continue to need brands like The Body Shop and L’Oréal Paris toattract new categories of buyers and increase revenue.

L’Oréal Paris is number one in Jordan, but Dubai is definitely oneof the most important Middle Eastern markets for the brand. It’s inall the terminals at the airport, and is backed up by 16 on-site beautyadvisors. “We have huge promotions,” Berger says. “Most of the timeit’s skincare because skincare is more successful than makeup at thisairport.” There are a lot of Chinese travelers who transit through

Dubai, and they favor whitening products, and a lot of routineslike toners and cleaners.

Revitalift is one of the top sellers, and its market momentumwas reinforced with the recent introduction of Revitalift Repair10, which combats 10 signs of aging, including UV damage. TheRevitalift line also includes Revitalift Program, which Berger saysis the number one SKU worldwide.

In addition to anti-aging products, mascaras are one of thestrong suits for L’Oréal Paris, and the brand introduced two newsets at TFWA WE this year. Mega Volume Collagene 24 Hourintroduced new collagen biospheres for added lash volume,boasting an expansion factor of nine in addition to its 24-houreffectiveness. False Lash Telescopic delivers lengthening in addi-tion to a false lash effect, based on the linking and binding of1.2mm microfibers to create a telescopic ladder.

At TFWA WE L’Oréal also introduced a new promotional toolfor retailers that leverages digital technology and the Internet.It features a large-screen monitor and enables digital marketingcontent to be controlled over the Internet.

“We can change advertising from our office in all the air-ports around the world,” Berger says. “We can adapt to the typeof travelers coming through the airport: for example, for DubaiAirport if there’s a flight coming from China we can make surethat the advertising is in Chinese with subtitles.” The unit isalready in use in Paris, with French, English, Chinese and Russ-ian options. Germany will follow soon, and L’Oréal is already siz-ing up other promising venues. �

“The link between The BodyShop and L’Oréal Paris lies in thefact that they are two affordablebrands which are in the airports

to attract new consumers.”Jacques Berger, Travel Retail Marketing

Director, L’Oréal Consumer Products

“ORevitalift Repair 10 combats 10

signs of aging, including UV damage

L’Oréal Consumer Products makesinroads in the Middle East with avaried portfolio BY HIBAH NOOR

The right mix

Beauty Beat: Skincare & Cosmetics

��Creative cosmetics and revolutionaryskincare: traveling consumers willhave plenty of options to choosefrom this seasonBY HIBAH NOOR

Cellular Radiance Emulsion SPF 30Company: $%�&'%('()Description: ��*(+,-��./(0�1'(+,-)0(0+�23(.-4')�')5*)0(.,(0+�*3-(30�6(-,�%�,(+,*)7)*�38�9&��5'3-):-(30�%0;�24*-(5*)%0-(�%+(0+�1)0)8(-.��)**4*%'�<%;(%0:)�24*.(30�9&��(.�;).(+0);�-3�,)*5').-3')�=34-,84*�./(0�%0;�7(-%*(-= Rouge Pur Couture

Company: >7).�9%(0-�$%4')0-��$?@'A%*Description: ��0)6�+)0)'%-(30*(5.-(:/�(0.5(');�1=�B30.()4'�9%(0-$%4')0-?.�(:30(:�:3*3'�5%*)--)�C');��84:,.(%�%0;�3'%0+)�C�(0�%:3**):-(30�38�:%5-(7%-(0+�:34-4').,%;).�-,%-�388)'�)%:,�:325*)D(30%�:4.-32(E);�*33/��$(5.�%').%-4'%-);�6(-,�(0-)0.)��.-%=�-'4):3*3'��-,%0/.�-3�-,)��3*3')7)%*F):,03*3+=��6,(*)�0%-4'%*�)D-'%:-.5'37(;)�:3283'-(0+�23(.-4')�-,%-*%.-.�%**�;%=

Colour DefinitionOmbre Minérale 4couleursCompany: �*%'(0.G'345��..)0:)��3'5�Description: H(+,*=:30:)0-'%-);�(0�2(0)'%*5(+2)0-.��-,).)�)=).,%;36.�')%**=�*(+,-�45-,)�)=).��F,)�.)-(0:*4;).�834'�.%-(0�%0;('(;).:)0-�.,%;).�%0;-63�83%2�%55*(:%-3'.

Cellular Eye Cream Platinum RareCompany: $%�&'%('()Description: �321(0).�-,)�(0-)0.)�%0;�(22);(%-)�%:-(3038�%�,(+,�5)'83'2%0:)�.)'42�6(-,�-,)�.45)'1�,=;'%-(0+536)'.�38�%�'(:,�=)-�*(+,-�23(.-4'(E)'�-,%-�2)*-.�(0-3�-,)./(0��F,)�/)=�(0+');()0-�(.�&4')��3**3(;%*�&*%-(042��6,(:,,)*5.�')3'+%0(E)�%0;�')1%*%0:)�-,)�./(0?.�0%-4'%*�1488)'E30)��.,()*;(0+�(-�8'32�-,)�;%2%+(0+�)88):-.�38�)D-)'0%*8%:-3'.�%0;�5')7)0-(0+�400):)..%'=�23(.-4')�*3..

Cellular Energizing BodycareCompany: $%�&'%('()Description: F,)�:3**):-(30�(0:*4;).��)**4*%'��0)'+(E(0+�%-,�%0;�9,36)'�G)*))�%0;��3;=�$3-(30��F,)�30)�5%'-./(0:%')��30)�5%'-�8'%+'%0:)�.)- 03-�30*=�,=;'%-).�.233-,).�%0;�8('2.�-,)�13;= �(-�%*.3�(07(+3'%-).�-,)�5.=:,)6(-,�%0�(0-'(+4(0+�3*8%:-3'=�1*)0;�38�143=%0-�8'4(-=�%0;�.5(:=03-).�6(-,�%�1)%4-(84*�8*3'%*�,)%'-

Double Strength Deep Wrinkle Filler�325%0=��I(),*?.��$?@'A%*�).:'(5-(30��1')%/-,'34+,6'(0/*)�-')%-2)0-�-,%-�388)'.(0.-%0-�%0;�*30+�-)'2�').4*-.��6(-,34-�-,)�4.)�38�.(*(:30).�J-�(.�:*(0(:%**=�;)230.-'%-);�-3;(2(0(.,�-,)�*33/�38�*(0).�%0;6'(0/*).�%0;�,%.�1))0�.,360-3�2(0(2(E)�-,)�0421)'�388%:(%*�*(0).�37)'�-(2)��(0�%.*(--*)�%.�834'�6))/.

42 ASIA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2011

The core of the L’Oréal Group’s

Lancôme brand is skincare, and

at the moment the most im-

portant news in that line is the

release of Visionnaire [LR 4212

4%] Corrector Serum. Based on molecular re-

search that has uncovered what L’Oréal calls “a

miraculous new molecule” – the LR 4212 in

the product’s name – Visionnaire promises to

rejuvenate skin, imparting finer texture, eras-

ing wrinkles, reducing pigmentary and vascu-

lar irregularities and tightening pores.

“There is a reason, why we call it the ‘Fun-

damental Corrector’ – for a ‘New Vision of

skin perfection.’ Upon application, one can

immediately see the skin being transformed,”

explains Stefan Lehner, Brand Director

Lancôme for Travel Retail Worldwide, L’Oréal

Luxe. “Such major scientific breakthrough in

skincare does not happen every three months.

We are particularly excited about this skincare

launch and are putting all our energy, creativ-

ity and excitement in this successful launch.

We are convinced that we can recreate a simi-

lar success story as we continue building with

Génifique Youth Activator.”

The “miracle molecule” in Visionnaire

'self-propels' through the layers of the epider-

mis, to set off what Lancôme calls a series of

tissular micro-transformations. The result, the

company says, is that “skin becomes finer,

wrinkles are erased, pigmentary and vascular

irregularities are reduced and pores are tight-

ened.”

The company’s researchers have always paid

attention to the processes that plants use to re-

pair themselves. When damaged, plants pro-

duce a “signal molecule” called jasmonic acid,

which activates healing processes in damaged

tissues and makes them more resistant.

The performance of the new Visionnaire LR

2412 4% product has been tested on Hispanic,

Caucasian, Asian and Afro-American complex-

ions. Lancôme says that the product can be

used on all skin types, including sensitive skin,

and on the eye contour regardless of the time

of year or time of day. Besides the uniqueness

and newness of the new molecule, Visionnaire

LR2412 4% is proven to be effective on every

type of skin and on all different skin carnations.

“We have tested the product on four differ-

ent ethnicities, always with outstanding re-

sults. Visionnaire LR2412 4% truly is a

transversal skincare innovation for each and

every woman on this planet – particularly

those who are currently not Lancôme skin

care users. Third, the powerful molecule

LR2412 has 100% tolerance – even around the

eye contour – and is active on 100% of the

subjects tested, which makes it perfectly suit-

able even for sensitive skin types,” says Lehner.

He continues: “Test results on Asian

women are just amazing. They especially love

the visible skin perfecting properties of Vi-

sionnaire LR2412 4%. This product integrates

itself perfectly in the Lancôme skincare rou-

tine. One starts with Génifique to activate,

then applies Visionnaire LR2412 4% to cor-

rect, before using one’s skin care cream(s).

“Exclusively for the Asian clientele we have

developed in addition a Visionnaire Emulsion

and Lotion, to offer a complete ‘Skin Perfec-

tion’ Routine,’” says Lehner.

The bottle design is inspired by a high-

technology mix of glass and metal, centred on

a fusion of silver and malachite green.

The company’s skincare focus for Septem-

ber and October will be on Visionnaire. Apart

from the regular POS and animation pro-

grams, it will use different visuals, i.e., testi-

monials with different ethnicities at the same

POS in order to communicate that Vision-

naire LR2412 4% truly is a product for every

woman.

Lancôme releases Visionnairebased on LR 2412 moleculeL'Oréal breaks new ground with a revolutionary skincare product

Visionnaire [LR 4212 4%] Corrector Serum

L’Oréal GroupCompany News:

For the first time, New York skinand hair care products makerKiehl’s is offering a collection ofFAA-compliant, travel-tested for-

mulas titled “Travel-Tested Solutions.” Thisunisex collection is designed to infuse skinwith essential moisture and nutrients dur-ing harsh travel and post-travel conditions.

Kiehl’s Travel-Tested Solutions is availableexclusively at Kiehl’s airport shops, down-town duty-free shops and onboard withAsiana Airlines, Air China, Air Hainan,China Southern and China Eastern airlinesfrom May of this year.

Seasoned and infrequent travelers noticethe direct effects travel can have on skinincluding dehydration and skin sensitivity.These stresses start during travel and canaffect skin for days afterward. “Preventinghydration loss during a flight is only half ofthe battle,” says Cammie Canella, Kiehl’s

Vice President Education and CustomerRelations. “Just as jet lag must be tended tofor days following travel, travelers shouldactively nurture aggravated skin two to fourdays post-travel to restore their skin’s nat-ural balance.”

Extended exposure to confined envi-ronments such as trains and planes oftenleaves passengers feeling psychological andphysiological effects on their skin. Travelersface conditions that include low humidity,low air pressure and recycled air, whichcause severely parched skin. The typical rel-ative humidity in aircraft cabins for flightsover an hour is below 10% for most of thejourney—as dry as desert air—often drop-ping to less than 5% on longer flights.

To combat these effects, Travel-TestedSolutions employs soothing and anti-micro-bial properties to help defend skin imme-diately against these adverse environmental

conditions. The collec-tion also contains cactusflower extract, which is

known to deliver 24/7 hydration, and Tibetanginseng, a mountain plant that increasesskin-cell respiration at high altitudes. Incombination with the blend of essential oils(lavender, geranium and rosemary), theproducts help to protect against dehydration.Kiehl’s says that all four products in the col-lection have been tested in-flight by pilotsand crew members of Air China, Air Hainan,China Eastern and China Southern.

The In-Flight Refreshing Facial Mist isdesigned to restore complexions irritatedby severe in-flight cabin conditions. Themist is formulated with cactus flower, Tibetanginseng and a blend of lavender, geraniumand rosemary. The 24/7 Activated Moistur-izer hydrates skin and helps shield it fromextreme in-flight skin dryness and dullness.

The First Class Purifying Hand Treatmentis designed to help protect hands from impu-rities commonly encountered during travel.The Eucalyptus Lip Relief Class has been for-mulated with eucalyptus, along with cactusflower and Tibetan ginseng.

Each product is available for individ-ual purchase or they can all

be bought together as a travel set, which includes acomplimentar ylimited edition luggage tag.


Unisex skin collection offers remediation for physical and psychological impact of travelBY HIBAH NOOR

Kiehl’s

KIEHL’S ANNOUNCES “ T rav e l-T e s te d S o lutio ns ”


Skincare Report

t is worth remembering that during the global eco-nomic downturn of 2009, duty free sales in Asia Pacificcontinued to grow. In the beauty category, the regionhas become a core revenue earner for the big houses,and investment has poured in, particularly in the skin-

care sub-sector. After 2010’s strong rebound, 2011’s beauty perfor-

mance in duty-free proved equally robust, driven by skin-care. For example, at Nuance Watson (Singapore), whichoperates the beauty concessions at Singapore Changi Air-port – one of the biggest duty free locations in the region– skincare grew at over 20%, faster than make-up orfragrance. In terms of beauty share, skincare saw

a +2% gain and SeniorCategory ManagerChillie Por says: “Wepredict skincare willprobably increase by a further +1.5%

points. Skincare will remain a strong driver in2012, in tandem with the healthy sales trend fromPRC travelers, our number one tourist nationality.”

Nuance Watson (Singapore) has in place sev-eral exclusive launches in the pipeline includingthe arrival of Coty’s US skincare acquisition Phi-losophy in May and, at the high end, another SK-II world exclusive launch in June, part of a largerprogram of in-store promotions and animationsthat keeps the sub-sector buoyant.

Another luxury skincare brand, La Prairie, is seeing demand atthe top end. “Generally we can say that our most precious collectionssuch as Cellular Platinum Rare, Caviar and White Caviar IlluminatingSystème are the top sellers,” says Vice President Corporate and SalesStrategy Yves Le Breton. “Our launches have done extraordinarilywell because Asian consumers like new developments in skincare.They understand the luxury and high tech approach of La Prairie.”

This has helped La Prairie to establish itself well in the region. “Whilefive years ago Asian travel retail was 25% less than the travel retail busi-ness in Europe, it is now doing 25% more than in Europe,” comments

I

�� !Yves Le Breton, Vice President Corporateand Sales Strategy, La Prairie

Skincare’s vitality is far from fading in Asian travel retail

BY JAMES ROSS

A radiantglow

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�RPOKPS�TO� M�M�K��LM�P��


Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:46 PM

Colorful Licenses

Cees Homburg, Presidentof Colorful Licenses, isnow enjoying the fruitsof a momentous career

change—one that’s left him busierthan ever. Originally a ceramicsengineer with his own successfulbusiness, he sold his company in the1990s, spent two years traveling the world with his family, and then started up Colorful Licenses 15 years ago at the suggestion of the original owner of Oilily, theDutch women’s and children’s fash-ion house.

Oilily was established in 1963 and grewquickly. After 10 years it already had its ownstores in the US, Japan and Korea. By the1980s and 1990s there were some 250 sin-gle-brand Oilily stores all over the world

at what Homburg says were premium loca-tions. As the original owners sold theircompany, Oilily was turned into a salesand finance driven corporation. Afteralmost completely losing its authenticity,the original owners bought back the brand

and started to build it up restoringits core values. After regaining lostground, the owners approachedHomburg with the suggestion thathe take over some aspects of non-core production for them.

“In the late 1980s and early 1990s,the ceramics industry lost its finan-cial appeal,” says Homburg. “There wasno margin left anymore. Everythingwas going to the Eastern Europeancountries. I had to buy the license forOilily and I had to start from scratch.”

It was a modest enough start, butthe company quickly began to growin size and to expand the range ofproducts and services it offers. Todaythe portfolio includes an extensiveand exclusive collection of brands,and Colorful Licenses describes itselfas “a medium-sized organization thatpromotes quality and color as the keyto our success.” Colorful Licenses hasa large product design departmentin the Netherlands that handles the full

lifecycle of product development, and isgrowing at between 10% and 30% a year. Itis now present in 94 domestic markets, as wellas airports and cruise lines in Europe.

Oilily has long had a strong presence inAsia, and that has naturally been reflectedin the market presence of Colorful Licenses.“We started in China by opening 25 domes-tic shops,” Homburg says. “At the momentwe’re in 100 stores domestic. There will beanother 150 opened in the next one and ahalf years. That’s a big success for us.” Thereare 50 outlets in Thailand, including single-branded Oilily stores, and the company is pre-sent in Asian airports, working with KingPower. An Orchard Road domestic storehas recently opened in Singapore.

“We’re looking at expanding the teamto handle the Asian business,” Homburgsays. “We have an office in Bangkok now, andwe’re looking for staff for both the travel retailand domestic markets. We want to be inexclusive locations.”

Homburg is bullish on travel retail inAsia, where the company’s reputation isbooming. “Our company is maturing andwe’re looking for the big guys like Dufry toget us on board,” he says. Gerzon handles theinflight side and seems to be doing a goodjob, as Homburg says Colorful Licenses isstarting on Asian airlines this fall.

A major career shift15 years ago led to Colorful Licenses’current successBY HIBAH NOOR

The right turn


Cees Homburg,President of Colorful

Licenses

Colorful Licenses’ showroom in The Netherlands

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:46 PM

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Building the portfolioFor the Spring/Summer 2013 lineup, Col -orful Licenses is working on a new Oililybags collection. Including a Weekender,Shoulder Bag and Kids Backpack, the col-lection emphasizes the Oilily brand’s trade-mark bright colors. Also part of therange will be a Beach Bag witha tropical print and a Mes-senger Bag with a vintage-feel flower motif. The namesof the collection’s differentprints themselves evoke thebrand’s colorful approach:Kaleidoscope, Neoprene,Tropical Tope, Palm Stripe,Fantasy Flora, Pendulumand Mosaic Leather. Thebags are made out ofpremium material andfocus on offeringpractical layoutsand features likemultiple storageoptions and arange of pocket sizes.

The two companies areputting more work into thekids/teen markets with new bags accompa-nied by lunch boxes and wallets for teens, and“funky motifs and funny prints” for kids,including a Bowling Bag in a red or limeflower tope print, a Backpack with floweraccessories and a Trolley in a bright coloredparrot print. For boys there’s a new collec-tion of bags with plates, labels and ticketsworked into the print.

For Spring/Summer 2013 Oilily is alsodeveloping shawls, an on-trend item thisseason. The shawls are in light blues, softmotifs and plain bright orange and blue.

Colorful Licenses picked up the world-wide license for the German brand RenaLange, a high-end exclusive brand fromMunich, six months ago. Rena Lange wasfounded in the 1930s. The license arrange-ment is the same as for the Oilily license,Homburg says.

Rena Lange bags retail at €400-€3000(US$520-$3,900). The line is an extensive one,with the new Spring/Summer 2013 collec-tion deriving aesthetic inspiration fromDavid Hockney’s Swimming Pool series, aswell as Romy Schneider’s acting perfor-mance in the classic film of the same name.

“The tranquil summer atmosphere isreflected in loose folds and blithe cuts, allwhich retain Rena Lange’s luxurious look,”the company says. The line offers draped silkcocoon shapes of premium materials and

high-necked tops paired with side-slitBermuda shorts.

For the new collection the classic RenaLange tweed jacket has been rendered in anultra-light form for Summer 2013, whilelong vests deploy tweeds in a more informal

role and the brand’s wellknown white collar

dress adoptsa marine

b l u eshade—“a sym-bol of

girlish light-heartedness.” High-

lights from the 30-piece run-way collection include coat-dresses andmini-dresses with elaborate embroideries,high-zipped silk jumpsuits with exposedbacks and simple floor-length evening gowns.Crêpe de Chine trousers evoke a pajamalook while cropped pants and shorts serveas counterpoint to cropped A-line skirts.

Tonally, the collection offers a spectrumof summery shades, encompassing sea tonesfrom sky to ocean blue, pastels and sunsettints. “Offbeat” patchwork, intricate crys-tal applications, ribboned materials andpleated silk gazar are designed to emulatethe patterns of flowing water. A loosely cutmini-dress draws on organza for its hem anda transparent silk overlay diffuses blackand white block stripes. One of the majorpieces of the collection is a “couture-wor-thy” coat of handwoven strips of Napa andvelour leathers.

The collection also includes shoes, bagsand specials. There are small shoulder bagswith chain straps, pochettes and skinnybelts, along with high-heeled thong sandalssporting a “bohemian-lux look.” The sig-nature gold buttons of the Rena Lange houseappear in matte for this season. The leathersare also offered in the accessories category.

“My philosophy is that as a producer youneed the possibility to do mass-market,mid-market and high-market,” Homburg

says. “And this is the high market for us. It’sall about quality at my company. If youcompare our bags with our competitors’they’re high quality—and fantastic. I waslooking for something like this and then Iapproached Rena Lange.”

The Rena Lange brand is already verywell known in Japan, Homburg says, and

the new licensereinforces

Colorful Licenses’ presence in Asia, wherecolor is a major attraction for customers.

Top of the teamHomburg’s team now numbers 100 aroundthe world, with hiring still underway. Hom-burg’s own strength, he feels, is on the pro-duction side. “I have that background—Iknow how to organize the company from theproduction side and what’s necessary. Weknow very well what the product costs are.We know how to make a product.”

Homburg makes a point of visiting his fac-tories personally. “I go there to make every-thing happen. I choose factories where wecan do that—I make the deals. You need alot of trust with your partner in China. A lotof money is at stake.” He also works hard atmarketing and other phases of the operation.

A typical day for the hard-working Hom-burg starts at 6 a.m. when he rises to feed thehorses, cows and dogs at his farm. Once at theoffice he visits each department in turn to keepin touch with what’s happening. He also callshis contacts in Asia for updates on productionand to head off potential problems. “UsuallyI have different meetings with the people whowork for me. I can also have meetings withexternal relations that visit the office.” He alsotakes an hour a day for himself, just to think.Answering emails takes up a big part of theday too—something anyone who works in anoffice can understand. At home at the end ofthe day, after dinner he calls his contacts in theUS and South America.

It’s a tough schedule, especially when youthrow in all the international travel. And it’sa far cry from ceramics engineering. Butjudging by his success so far, Cees Homburgknows how to make the right moves. c

Colorful Licenses

For Spring/Summer

2013, Oilily is developing shawls, an on-trend item

this season

Colorful Licensespicked up the

worldwide licensefor exclusive

German brandRena Lange

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:47 PM

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2013DutyFree Show of the

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Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 3:47 PM


At its booth at the TFWA WE in Cannes(Marine Village, Stand R7), Lindt & Sprüngliplan to unveil the travel retail exclusive LindtGold Selection, which includes a range ofLindt pralines and truffles. Formal launch ofthe collection into travel retail worldwidewill take place next spring.

“Presented in exclusive golden boxes, thisarrangement of exquisite pralines will take

you to a world of exceptionalchocolate pleasure with their

smooth melting fillings and crispytextures,” Lindt says. “Whether you

are a luscious truffle lover or you pre-fer the finest Lindt pralines, there is a deli-

cious chocolate delight for any taste.”The Gold Selection is presented in a

gold colored box, underlining the range’spremium positioning, and is intended toappeal to a broader demographic of exist-ing and new Lindt customers.

The new 275g Lindor Nostalgic TinAssorted presents four Lindor flavors—Milk,White, Dark and Hazelnut—in a tin decoratedwith a nostalgic picture and retro design witha Swiss theme. The tin is refillable andserves as a keepsake, being positioned forplacement in the souvenir category.

The ensemble builds on the success ofthe Lindor Assorted, which is the best sell-ing Lindor product in travel retail. “The Lin-dor Nostalgic Tin Assorted is a collector’s item,which is handled as an in out product andis replaced on a regular basis,” Lindt says.

BelgianindulgencePackaging takes center stage for Guylian, whichis introducing new packaging concepts for itsGuylian Temptations at TFWA WE. These are indi-vidually wrapped premium Belgian chocolates,in the trademark Guylian Seahorse shape andfilled with three popular flavors: Original Pral-iné, Dark Praliné and Milk Truffle.

In May 2011 Guylian’s Temptations won atwo-star Superior Taste Award, conferred by120 chefs from the International Taste & Qual-ity Institute, who cited the product’s scent, tex-ture and taste.

The range is being extended for 2012 inresponse to increasing demand in the travelretail sector. The new 537g duty free stylepouch pack is designed for capacity and con-venience, and Guylian says it will suit all needsfrom impulse buying for personal consumptionto everyday sharing with friends and family.The smaller pouch pack of 131g will be anideal format for self-indulgence.

Continuing with the packaging accents, thenew golden box is hand decorated and finishedwith gold ribbon, positioning it in the luxury giftand event gift category.

Guylian is also introducing Perlines, a newsmooth center made from a blend of the signa-ture Guylian hazelnut praliné and creamy milkchocolate truffle filling, enclosed with Belgianchocolate and decorated with fine chocolatelines. Perlines are offered in milk, dark and whitechocolate. The new range is available in Guylian’strademark square and rectangular gift boxes.

The Belgian Chocolate Sea Shells, Guylian’sstar product, are the top Belgian boxed choco-late brand distributed in travel retail and dutyfree shops.

Guylian will also be underlining its commit-ment to “Project Seahorse,” its campaign ded-icated to preserving seahorses and other marinelife across the world. The company provides longterm support for this work and has been amajor partner since 1999. More information isavailable at www.projectseahorse.org.

Guylian’sTemptationsPouch Pack

Positional packaging

ConfectioneryNews

Storck Travel Retail will present the new face ofits iconic merci Finest Selection and its seasonalcollections for Christmas 2012 and Chinese NewYear 2013 at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes(Mediterranean Village, Stand P9).

Three new travel exclusive designs are set to beintroduced under the merci Finest Selection range.

Since its launch in 1993, merci Finest Selec-tion has been listed with more than 95% of StorckTravel Retail’s customers, and has shown excel-lent results worldwide. To better communicateand emphasize the brand’s travel retail strength,

the merci Finest Selectionpackaging has beenenhanced with famous land-marks, namely the Taj Mahal,Eiffel Tower and Big Ben.State-of-the-art printing tech-nology has been used to givemerci’s trademark gold colora more upscale and pre-mium look, which supportsits position in the informalgifting segment.

To celebrate the upcoming Chinese Year ofthe Snake 2013, Storck Travel Retail is introduc-ing—for the first time in the brand’s history—a lim-ited edition merci Finest Selection 400g gift pack.Embracing the bright red coloring and classic Chi-nese lantern theme, the brand seeks to balance itsEuropean heritage while acknowledging the impor-tance of Asian travelers.

Also on show will be Storck Travel Retail’s2012 merci Finest Selection Christmas pack, whichcomprises the brand’s eight best-known flavors ina bright red and gold design featuring classic hol-iday ornaments. Reflecting the brand’s high-endinformal gifting character, the pack is not onlydesigned for Christmas but can also be seen as ayear-round festive gift.

Storck Travel Retail’sfestive mood

The new Gold Selection includes a range of Lindt pralines and truffles

Limited editionmerci Finest

Selection gift packcelebrates Chinese

Year of the Snake

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:09 PM

PREMIUM AUSTRALIAN MACADAMIA NUTS

Paton’s MacadamiasMelbourne, Australia

T +61 3 9730 5900 [email protected] www.patons.com.au

Paton’s MacadamiasMelbourne, Australia

T +61 3 9730 5900 [email protected] www.patons.com.au

NEW FLAVOURS 2012 - 13

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 7:41 PM

Liquor Report

Asia Duty Free speaks with foursuppliers who know a thing or twoabout providing the luxury spiritsthat Asian travelers crave. From

celebrity brand ambassadors and rareCognacs to extensive portfolios and limitededitions, Rémy Cointreau, Prowood Wine& Spirits, Diageo and Edrington are seeingtheir hard work pay off in one of the world’smost talked about regions.

“From strength to strength”Asia Duty Free recently had theopportunity to speak withMatthew Hodges, Marketing andBusiness Development Direc-

tor for Rémy Coin-treau GTR, aboutwhat the com-pany has planned

for this year’sTFWA WE in

Cannes. He tells us

that as usual, Rémy Cointreau is constantlyinnovating and will have a number of newproducts at the show.

A limited edition Rémy Martin bottlewith a pop culture theme that will appeal tothe younger Cognac drinker is set to make

its debut at TFWA WE, andthe most recent upmarkettreatment of Cointreau, calledMabille, will be showcased atthe show as well. Additionally,Russian Standard continues

making waves in duty freewith a new design

for Russian Stan-dard Gold.Finally, cham-pagne fans canfind the PiperHeidsieck rangeon Rémy Coin-treau’s stand as well.

Of course,another greatway to makesure that con-sumers are keep-ing an eye onyour brand is tohave a brandambassador likeDita von Teese.

In support ofCointreau, von Teese will be making appear-ances in various parts of Asia in the autumnas a means of putting the brand in the spot-light. She has also worked with Cointreau todesign an elegant and sophisticated fashionitem which will create a real stir among thebrand’s female consumers, says Hodges.

“Asia is a very important market forCognac and Rémy Martin has an excellentreputation there,” Hodges says. “Sales arephenomenal, especially of those expressionsat the top end, including Centaure de Dia-

mant, the travel retail exclu-sive Premier Cru collectionand of course Louis XIII, thepinnacle of the collection.”

A rare breedCalifornia-based ProwoodWine & Spirits’ (PWS) offer-ing in Cannes this year issteeped in the mystiqueand luxury of pre-mium spirits.The brandsshowcasedare led bythe aro-m a t i ca n ds p i c ybut del-i c a t eA r m a nC o g n a cfrom Franceand an Armen-ian brandy calledKilikia, madefrom finestg r a p e sgrown inthe Ararat Region.

PWS is brandingArman Cognac,available in both the XO and VSOP expres-sions, as the jewel in its portfolio, the “Sig-nature of a royal man.” The company saysArman Extra Old Cognac is a blend of ahundred rare and selected eaux-de-vie fromthe premier growing areas of France keptin oak barrels for 20 to 50 years to achieveperfection.

Kilikia brandy, on the other hand, is avail-able in the XO expression and is namedafter the Armenian kingdom called Kilikiaor “Little Armenia.” This Brandy is aged for10 years. After tastings, experts described it

Leading with luxurySome big name spirits suppliers discuss the importance of developing luxury

and limited edition offerings for the Asian traveler BY RYAN WHITE

PWS is billing ArmanCognac as the jewel in its

portfolio—Arman Extra OldCognac is a blend of a

hundred rare and selectedeaux-de-vie from the

premier growing areas of France


Sales of high-end

Rémy Martinexpressions are excellent

in Asia, says Business Development

Director for Remy Cointreau GTR

Matthew Hodges

In support of Cointreau,

Dita von Teese will be making

appearances in various parts of

Asia in the autumn

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:10 PM

Visit us on stand J24 (Red Village) from October 21-24 at TFWA WE

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:10 PM

Liquor Report


as strong yet delicate, at the same timeleaving a definite hint of toasted woodand touch of cinnamon.

“Since we established PWS in2003, we have continued to expandthe portfolio by responding to theconsumer’s desire for quality andexceptionally smooth spirits,” saysPWS owner and President Hen-rik Sargsyan. “And that is whywe observe the market situationwith attention, to do our bestto provide quality spirits withexcellent taste and one of a kindpackaging.”

A varied portfolio“Our continued success inAsia has been driven bythe Mainland Chinesetraveler as we havestrived to address theirpassion for high endproducts, including Dia-geo’s deluxe and superdeluxe brands,” says Ed -ward Mirana, RegionalMarketing Manager -Asia Pacific, Diageo.

For example, Johnnie Walker Blue Label– The Casks Edition—a bold limited editionrelease of the company’s iconic blend—is nowavailable in select travel retail stores for anRRP of US$300 for 1 liter.

In addition to this, Diageo GTME has alsolaunched Johnnie Walker Platinum Label, apremium blended Scotch whisky that will sittowards the top end of the Johnnie Walkerrange. Available originally in 75cl size (RRPUS$85) in limited Asian duty free locations,the global duty free launch of the 1 litervariant (RRP US$100) was in June 2012.

Meanwhile, Johnnie Walker Gold LabelReserve is another addition to the portfolio.The variant is inspired by the seamless 190-year lineage of the Johnnie Walker story.

As Diageo GTME’s second biggest brandin Asia Pacific travel retail, behind onlyJohnnie Walker in terms of sales value, ShuiJing Fang continues to go from strength tostrength. During the key selling period overthe Chinese New Year, Shui Jing Fang deliv-ered record sales levels, driven by two ShuiJing Fang Chinese New Year Limited Editionpacks and supported by Diageo’s ChineseNew year activation.

Diageo GTME Asia also notes that theCîroc vodka brand has been successful inbridging the gender and cultural gaps that

are found in manyspirit brands and

has proven to be popu-lar with both male and female consumers.Diageo will be embarking on a new travelretail campaign that appeals to both men andwomen, as well as launching Coconut andRed Berry flavors.

Sales for Smirnoff, the world’s number onevodka, have recently been driven by the lat-est travel retail exclusive launch of SmirnoffGold Collection. With the luxury of gold inevery drop, Smirnoff Gold is a cinnamon-spiced vodka.

“We believe the Diageo portfolio is wellpositioned to meet the demands andsophistication desired by the Chinesetraveler,” concluded Mirana.

“Very specialindeed”“TFWA World Exhibitiongives us an excellent oppor-tunity to showcase some ofthe innovations whichEdrington is offering,” saysEdrington Area DirectorSteven Sleigh.

“Additionally, on displaywill be the third in a series oflimited edition travel retailexclusives, The Macallan 1824Collection Limited Release

MMXII,” Sleigh told us. “Just 1,824 decantersof this single malt whisky, which has beenselected from some of the rarest casks atThe Macallan Estate, were produced for saleso it is very special indeed.”

Rich rosewood in color, TheMacallan Limited Release MMXII(49.5% ABV) offers sweet driedfruits, ginger and nutmeg, as well assoft wood spice on the nose. Onthe palate it is initially spicy thensoftening to release an abundanceof sultana and raisin with chocolateorange in the background.

This superb richness of charac-ter and color can be attributed inpart to the oak casks in which thissingle malt has lain. The casks werehand crafted specifically for TheMacallan in Jerez, southern Spainand seasoned for two years withthe finest dry Oloroso sherry.

The Macallan has been the starbrand in the dramatic growth

enjoyed by Edrington’s brands, withduty free sales volume doubling in just

four years. This impressive growth makesit currently the leading single malt by vol-ume and value in Asia. Visitors to this year’sTFWA will also see the new Masters ofPhotography Leibovitz edition at Edring-ton’s stand. c

Diageo GTME’ssecond biggest brandin Asia Pacific travelretail, behind onlyJohnnie Walker interms of sales value, is Shui Jing Fang

The Macallan

Limited Release MMXII is

presented in a beautiful decanter,

which has been hand-blown from the finest crystal

to achieve flawless clarity

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:11 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:11 PM

Liquor News

Gulf Beverages has announced that its suc-cess in India continues with the launchof three variants of The Glenrothes atDelhi Duty Free this past summer. First,the Robur Reserve, a travel retail exclu-sive product, is available in a 1-liter bot-tle and retails at US$60. Secondly, theVintage 1991, again a travel retail exclu-sive and sold in a 1-liter bottle, retailsat US$130. Finally, the Oldest Reserve,packaged in the iconic Glenrothes framemade of copper and oak, is availableat Delhi Duty Free in a 70 cl bottle. TheOldest Reserve is a travel retail exclu-sive and retails at US$365 per bottle.

“The Glenrothes Oldest Reserve is exactly that—the oldest of our multivintage expressions, combining The Glen-rothes that was distilled in different years,” explains Leon Ash-ford, Director of Business Development at Gulf Beverages. “This firstbottling is selected from spirit that came off the stills in 1967, 1972, 1977,1979 and 1980, and has been matured for at least 30 years—some of theliquid much longer. The wonderful and rare casks chosen deliver a uniquepersonality with very mature characteristics.”

Gulf Beverages has set its sights on being the go-to distributor for sup-pliers looking to crack the challenging Indian market and has made greatstrides in recent months in terms of high-profile listings and promotions inthe region.

“Logistically we have the ability to get stock into India easily due to ourlocation in Jebel Ali,” Ashford says. “I think our model truly does provide some-

thing different from the traditional model, which has been importing from thepoint of production or taking from one of the domestic operators, which isdifficult given taxation and other regulations.”

Meanwhile, it appears that Delhi Duty Free and Gulf Beverages are cer-tainly in agreement as to the region’s potential. Delhi Duty Free is a joint ven-ture company between Delhi International Airport Limited, IDFS Tradings Ltdand Aer Rianta International. As India’s progressive economy continues togrow, Delhi Duty Free says it sees “an exciting opportunity within the airportretailing business” and aims to be one of the world’s prominent travel retailshopping experiences and destinations.

Prince Hubert de Polignac and T.T. Trunkshave combined their skills to design atrunk reflecting an alliance between cognacand poker that symbolizes their values ofmodernity and the sharing of their respec-tive universes.

To celebrate this alliance, thecellar master wanted to revealhis most original brandies,secretly preserved in the par-adise of the House of Poli-gnac. The magic of very longaging has given this excep-tional blend of Grande Cham-pagne cognac an intense aro-matic richness, combined withthe vivacity of aromas of can-died citrus, delicately enhancedby notes of dried fruit. Its finish is

described as “intense and captivating,characterized by extreme finesse.”

Also new at the H. Mounier stand (K21,Red Village) will be an exceptional newdecanter of Prince Hubert de PolignacExtra Cognac. A rare spirit for true Cognac

lovers, the variant is presented in a pres-tige gold and black box adorned with thecompany crest. This new Extra Cognac isoffered in a gracefully rounded decanter thatjealously guards the Grande ChampagneCognac within.

In the mouth, the Prince Hubert dePolignac Extra reveals exceptionalsmoothness and aromatic depth.Long years of aging give this Cognacthe characteristic mellow roundnessof the Charente terroir. Its deep goldenrobe with amber glints offers hints ofvanilla, cinnamon and almonds, withcandied fruit and spice aromasbeneath.

Gulf Beverages launches three variants of The Glenrothes at Delhi Duty Free

H. Mounier unveils new offerings for TFWA 2012

A new collaboration between Prince Hubert dePolignac and T.T. Trunks has resulted in a productperfect for travel retail


Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:11 PM

Russian Standard Vodka, the number one pre-mium vodka in Russia, announced today thelaunch of the new Russian Standard Gold bot-tle. With the outstanding continued success ofthe Russian Standard Vodka brands in Russiaand around the world, Russian Standard hascompleted a dramatic makeover of its highlyexceptional product Russian Standard Gold,which will be available around the worldat the end of 2012.

Russian Standard Gold is a uniquecombination of classic vodka and care-fully selected extracts of Siberian Gin-seng, or “golden root” in Russian, addingvigor and vitality to celebrations. Theproduct packaging, with its sumptu-ously embossed gold foiled label andone-of-a-kind gift box, embodies the truetraditions of Russian generosity andgift giving. “This is what makes Russ-ian Standard Gold an ideal vodka to cel-ebrate the many golden moments in

life shared with friends, family and colleagues,”the company said in a press release.

The new bottle for Russian Standard Goldis a feast for the eyes. Its elegant glass designand cork closure evoke images of pure cele-bration. Key features of Russian Standard Goldare highlighted on the label, including the key

ingredients of Siberian Ginseng.Russian Standard Gold is produced

in Russia, the true emotional and spir-itual homeland of vodka. The vodka isproduced at Russian Standard Vodka’sstate-of-the-art distillery in St. Peters-burg using the finest Russian winterwheat from the southern steppes ofRussia and the softest waters fromLake Ladoga. A rich vodka with aromasof caramel coupled with warm vanillaand cinnamon tones on the palatemakes Russian Standard Gold the stan-dard of excellence in vodka.

Russian Standard notes that travelretail will be a key part of the launchof the new Russian Standard Gold bot-tle and the product will feature heav-ily at the supplier’s stand at TFWA WE.

InternationalBeverage bringsnew Balblair Vintage1996 to CannesInternational Beverage Holdings is to unveila new vintage of Balblair Highland Single MaltScotch Whisky at TFWA Global Exhibitionin Cannes. The first release of the 1996 Vin-tage replaces the very popular 1995 Vintageand is to be available exclusively throughglobal travel retail in one-liter bottles.

Balblair has become established as afavorite of discerning whisky drinkers world-wide. As well as being the only distillerysolely releasing vintage malts, the contem-porary packaging design sets it apart and thetraditional production methods result in asingle malt of rare quality.

As with every expression, Balblair 1996 isun-chill-filtered, naturally colored and bottledat 46% ABV for maximum flavor delivery.Sparkling golden in appearance, this expres-sion is full of fruit and spice on the nose witharomas of lemon, orange, toffee and coconutwith an intriguing hint of subtle smoke. Mat-uration in American oak ex-bourbon casks hasadded characteristic sweet, toffee and vanilla

flavors. Sweet andspicy on the palate, summer fruits and tof-fee combine with chocolate and coconut ina long, smooth finish.

Distillery Manager John MacDonald observesof his latest selection: “Much time and care hasgone into creating this new vintage and I amsatisfied that all the hard work, dedication anddevotion have paid off. I am confident thatwhisky enthusiasts worldwide will really enjoythis newest member of the Balblair family.”

James Bateman, Global Travel Retail Man-ager for International Beverage, states: “Travelretail is a key sales platform in International Bev-erage’s brands strategy for 2012. The deci-sion to launch the latest Balblair Vintage atTFWA Cannes underlines our commitment toinvest in the global travel retail channel.”

The new bottle for Russian StandardGold features an elegant glass design

and cork closure, evoking thoughts of celebration

Russian Standard launches new Gold bottle

Protégé International has announcedthe next chapter in the story of itsmulti award winning The Wild GeeseCollection of Premium Spirits with thelaunch of The Rum Collection. Twoexpressions will be on show at theworld’s largest luxury goods exhibition,TFWA in Cannes.

With stunning designs and uniquebespoke bottles, The Wild Geese RumCollection tells the harrowing andheroic story of the Ir ish in theCaribbean. The Wild Geese PremiumRum is an intense blend of aged rumsfrom Barbados, Jamaica and Guyana.Its clean, pronounced nose hints at itssoft, aged Bajan heritage and hon-eyed aromatic Guyanese and Jamaicanpot still character. On the nose thereare distinct yet light and fresh notes—sage and eucalyptus—in harmonywith a strong depth and perceivedsweetness.

Also on show will be The WildGeese Golden Rum, a versatile rumthat comes from thevery heart of theCaribbean. Hand-picked parcels of rumaged for up to fiveyears create a unique,versatile, sweet andcomplex light goldenpouring rumthat’s perfectfor makingcocktails. Tolearn moreabout therums, pleasevisit ProtégéI n t e r n a -tional’s standat Red VillageK12.

The Wild Geese sail intoCannescarrying newtreasures


The Wild GeesePremium Rum isan intense blend

of aged rumsfrom Barbados,

Jamaica andGuyana

Balblair 1996 isun-chill-filtered,

naturally coloredand bottled at46% ABV for

maximum flavordelivery

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:12 PM

Driving growthAsia Duty Free speaks with Managing Director of Diageo GTME Roland Abella about the company’s performance in FY2012 and what’s to come over the next 12 months

BY RYAN WHITE

Asia Duty Free: Can you comment on Diageo’s results for the six monthsended June 30, 2012? Roland Abella, Managing Director, Diageo GTME: I’m delighted tosay that Diageo GTME had a strong year, a result which underlinesthe buoyancy of the channel and the strength of our brand and inno-vation agenda within it. Both these factors give us confidence in ourplans for the coming years. The performance we delivered duringFY2012 reflects some really groundbreaking work by our people.They, like me, are really energized by our growth potential and I ampersonally very excited to be leading what is an extremely importantmarket for Diageo.

Our positive performance in FY2012 was driven largely by our superdeluxe brands and it is in this category that our innovation has led the

way. We had successful launches of John-nie Walker Platinum Label, Johnnie

Walker XR21, Johnnie Walker GoldLabel Reserve and Johnnie WalkerBlue Label – The Casks Edition.They have helped grow our John-

nie Walker footprint and willcontinue to build our range of

highly competitive super deluxeScotch whisky offerings. We knowthat our shoppers in travel retail are

looking for exclusive products in the duty free store and we will increas-ingly produce exclusive propositions to capture their attention.

Global travel Asia remains a major contributor to our global travelbusiness, driven by the consumer dynamic, gifting opportunities andthe growing level of international travel. The excellent growth in thatmarket is largely down to our reserve brands.

In the Americas performance was driven by, among other things,inflight and cruise channels and the continued strong performance ofJohnnie Walker Double Black.

MENA continues to contribute to our growth, with markets such asLebanon performing particularly strongly. Furthermore, our businessin North Africa is growing and we believe there is certainly potential.

Europe, as you might expect, remained uneven and economicallychallenging in some markets, but we were pleased to maintain our busi-ness performance there.

ADF: Given the number of Asians traveling throughout the world canyou tell me the importance that your Chinese white spirits will playin the future? RA: Shui Jing Fang, our premium baijiu brand, continues to be a majorsuccess, and it is second only to Johnnie Walker in the Asia market. Ithas huge appeal for the Chinese traveler and last year we made the mostof its popularity through new merchandising and our special ChineseMid Autumn Festival pack.

“Our relationships with our customersare of vital importance to us and I ampassionate about improving our col-laborations to deliver real commer-cial value to them and ourselves.”

Roland Abella, Managing Director, Diageo GTME

The Smirnoff Gold display atDubai Duty Free—the variantwas launched late last year

Diageo GTME


Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:12 PM

Shui Jing Fang will remain an important part of our offering in thefast-growing luxury spirit segment in the key markets of China, HongKong, Taiwan and Singapore. But, because the Chinese traveler is trulyinternational, we are seeing Shui Jing Fang gaining a foothold in otherregions. It has been a notable success story in travel retail in locationsas diverse as Paris, London and San Francisco.

ADF: Related to the above, Diageo has a great stable of very high-endbrands. What other brands are important for you in terms of the bur-geoning middle class in emerging markets?RA: In addition to our super deluxe offerings, brands such as JohnnieWalker Black and Johnnie Walker Red continue to be important to usin duty free, as do others such as Baileys and Smirnoff.

ADF: In the Americas, MENA or Asia what large-scale promo-tions do you have planned for the coming months? RA: It’s a matter of watch this space, because we will be puttingtogether some really exciting things for John Walker & SonsOdyssey, our latest innovation in ultra deluxe, and continu-ing to support our deluxe brands such as Johnnie WalkerPlatinum, Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve and ourultra-premium vodka Cîroc.

ADF: In terms of innovation, what will we see in themonths to come?RA: We have a particularly strong innovation pipeline, butfor reasons of commercial confidentiality I can’t be specificabout our future plans. You will have seen our recent launchin global travel Asia of John Walker & Sons Odyssey, a spec-tacular and unique triple-malt blend that joins our unmatchedportfolio of luxury spirits.

Our innovation is focused on the super deluxe and ultradeluxe sectors and will be accompanied by luxurious andengaging experiences in travel retail, through partnershipsand investments in our customer relationships. We havesome exciting new launches planned this year but, as I’msure you can appreciate, I can only give the details whenthey are formally unveiled.

ADF: What major sponsorships are coming up in thenext few months in the Americas, MENA and Asia? RA: The Johnnie Walker sponsorship of Team McLarenMercedes remains the key opportunity for us. It is atruly outstanding sponsorship that is working extremelywell for the brand and we will certainly activate the

sponsorship during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Through our strong cus-tomer partnerships we have developed a number of stand-out campaignsaround this which are really delivering scale in building brand equityand driving growth both in travel retail and in our domestic markets.

ADF: Can you tell me what Diageo has planned for the rest of the yearin terms of targeting the female traveler in duty free?RA: The female opportunity is huge. The largest growing economic forcein the world isn’t China or India—it is women. Research suggests theyare under-represented when it comes to global alcohol purchases.

We will continue to market NUVO specifically at the female mar-ket, with activations custom-designed for this audience. In recentmonths Smirnoff Gold Collection has proved to be a key player in dri-ving a higher footfall of female shoppers in duty free stores and we willdevelop further limited edition flavors for Baileys which have proveda huge hit with women.

As well as focusing innovation at the female shopper, we are seek-ing to ensure that our activations can really engage with them. Bali Air-port, for instance, was one of the first in the world to really target femaleshoppers with a fantastic three-month concourse activation in a promi-nent location and with high-traffic visibility. This involved a fun andhighly engaging experience centered on a pop-up cocktail bar. Mak-ing it a great environment for women to enjoy, they introduced a rangeof Diageo spirits (Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve, Baileys, Cîroc,Smirnoff and Tanqueray) through bespoke cocktails and gave shoppersthe chance to create their own cocktails.

Given the growth potential of the market,we have also taken other bold steps with, forinstance, Johnnie Walker. In a ground-break-ing moment for both Johnnie Walker andLebanon, the acclaimed Lebanese film makerNadine Labaki was announced as the brand’sfirst female giant at the end of 2011. Nadine’s

involvement in “Walk with Giants” marked the first time thatJohnnie Walker had ventured off the traditional path of maleambassadors and opened the door to women in Lebanon,inspiring them to push continuously forward. The cam-paign was a stunning success that resulted in a 49% increasein female participation in Lebanon.

ADF: Finally, how do you feel your previous experience willhelp you in this new position? Can you tell us a bit aboutyour objectives for the rest of the year? RA: I am no stranger to GTME, having been Regional Direc-tor for the Middle East and North Africa and more recentlyrunning the Indian market, which gave me a great deal ofexperience, particularly with consumers new to our brands.In GTME one of the things we can achieve through our inno-vative offerings is to provide global visibility for our brandsand drive consumer recruitment for them.

GTME is a channel full of amazing opportunities withemerging markets and new consumers. Our aim is to growour business and our customers’ businesses, not just thisyear but in succeeding years, and I believe we are well posi-tioned to achieve our goals. We have a very strong pipelineof innovations which will continue to underpin our growthstrategy. Our relationships with our customers are of vitalimportance to us and I am passionate about improving ourcollaborations to deliver real commercial value to them andourselves. c

John Walker &Sons Odyssey,Diageo’s latestinnovation inthe ultra deluxesegment

Cîroc Peach; theultra premium vodkabrand is just one ofthe many spirits inDiageo’s portfoliothat is enjoyed bythe all-importantfemale traveler


Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:12 PM

Orbis Aged World Whiskey


Orbis Aged World Whiskey, distrib-uted in Asia by L&L SAS, has hada good year so far. Not only was itnamed one of the 101 whiskies to

“try before you die” by acclaimed whiskywriter and aficionado Ian Buxton, but theunique blend was also this year listed atUS/Canada border stores.

In the lead-up to Cannes, Orbis’ Europeandistributor World of Patria International(WOPI) included the brand in its IsignisCollection, a moniker designed to bringtogether under one umbrella all of the highlyrated and exceptional quality spirits in theWOPI portfolio. Marketing Manager at St.James Distillery Janet Murphy tells AsiaDuty Free that these recent developments aregreat news as the brand continues to con-centrate on the whiskey-driven Asia market.

Different is goodNearly every new travel retail product, whetherin the spirits category or otherwise, is generallytouted as unique or groundbreaking for onereason or another. With Orbis, however, theone-of-a-kind claim made by St. James Dis-tillery is actually right on the money. True,there are plenty of blends out there to choosefrom, but Orbis is the only “global blend.”Orbis is made of the finest aged whiskies—some 15 or 16 years old—from Scotland,Ireland, America, Canada and Japan, whichare then blended in small batches beforebeing put into hand-numbered bottles.

“As a world blend, Orbis offers some-thing unique for the traveling consumer ina category where demand for niche brands

is growing,”says Murphy.“It’s alreadya p p e a l i n gnot only toe x i s t i n gwhiskey lovers but also attracting newdrinkers and, with its elegant packaging, it’sideal for gifting.”

Given that Orbis is a blend of whiskiesunlike any other in the world, there’s nodoubt that whiskey aficionados—alwaysexalting quality, craftsmanship and unique-ness as the holy trinity that comprises agood dram—will be drawn to the brand. Casein point: whiskey writer Ian Buxton.

Buxton’s first edition of 101 Whiskies toTry Before You Die has been the UK’s best-selling whisky book for the past two yearsand is now available in English and modernChinese with traditional Chinese and Frenchversions set to follow.

Orbis is included in the new version of thebook, described by Buxton as “an accessibleand appealing whisky that will probably mixwell.” The tasting notes call it “smooth androunded, with a honey sweetness.” Buxton saysthe taste is “rich and warming,” with notesof “dried fruits and Christmas cake” and a fin-ish that “lingers nicely” with “some smokyhints develop[ing] towards the end.”

Of course, from a travel retail perspective,the nod from Buxton—while no doubtappreciated—will only translate to sales ifOrbis is securing listings. Luckily, the GreatWhite North has never been a country to passup a good whiskey, especially considering

Canadian whiskeycomprises one-fifth of the Orbis blend.

Securing new listingsEarlier this year WOPI announced a majorbreakthrough into the North American mar-ket with listings for Orbis and the Wemyss12 Year Old Vatted Malt Whisky rangethrough various Canadian/US border cross-ing outlets. Retail outlets that ordered Orbisand Wemyss were Niagara Duty Free HorsTaxes, Queenston/Lewiston Duty Free, PeaceBridge Duty Free, The Ambassador DutyFree Store, 1,000 Island Duty Free, John-stown Duty Free and Blue Water BridgeDuty Free Shop. This follows WOPI’s appoint-ment of the Borders Duty Free Agency as itsrepresentative in Canada earlier this yearand approval for listings by the LCBO.

“This is fantastic news for Orbis AgedWorld Whiskey and we’re delighted,” saidMurphy. “It’s the first of Orbis’ home coun-tries to list the brand—there is Canadianwhiskey in the makeup of the brand—so it’sreally significant for us. The market showsvolume increases across duty free/travelretail in blended scotch in India, Singapore,South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand and otherwhiskies such as American, Canadian andIrish all show positive growth. Orbis is per-fect for this growing demand.” c

After recognition from Ian Buxton and some noteworthy North Americanlistings, Orbis World Whiskey is ready to tackle its target market of Asia duty free BY RYAN WHITE

Aninternational brand

Orbis is made ofthe finest agedwhiskies—some15 or 16 yearsold—fromScotland, Ireland,America, Canadaand Japan

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:12 PM

Braun GmbH, Dept. IAM-DF, Frankfurter Straße 145, D-61476 Kronberg, Germany, Tel.: +49 6173 30 2221, E-mail: [email protected], www.braun.com/global

Unzip a new skin feeling that lasts, in one stroke.Silk épil 7 Dual Epilator

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Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:12 PM

Pernod Ricard


To celebrate MartellCordon Bleu’s onehundredth anniver-

sary Martell turned tofellow Comité Colbertmember the House ofBoucheron to make aone-off piece of theiconic cognac bottle. Theresult is a single uniquebottle, called The Ulti-mate Jewel, which cap-tures both houses’ pas-sion for transforming the finest and rarest ofraw materials into either exquisite blends orbeautiful, timeless jewelry.

On its tour of Asia duty free, The UltimateJewel was displayed in the Martell Experi-ence boutiques in September at Hong KongInternational Airport and October at KualaLumpur International Airport, as well as inSingapore Changi Airport’s Duty Free Storefrom November 1 to 15. Martell brandattachés will greet potential buyers and givetravelers the rare chance to view the mas-terpiece; a once in a lifetime opportunity forloyal Martell customers and cognac con-noisseurs. Collectors, as well as Martell’smost loyal consumers, will have the oppor-tunity to purchase The Ultimate Jewel dur-ing an auction event. Expected to fetch inexcess of €100,000 (US$129,000), the orig-inal piece will be auctioned at the end of theyear to mark the culmination of MartellCordon Bleu’s centenary celebration.

“Whisky and Cognac are key categoriesfor us,” says John O’Sullivan, Marketing

Director for PernodRicard Asia TravelRetail. “Whisky is a bigvolume category but evenmore important by valuebecause of the size of themore premium segments.

“Cognac has shownvery strong growth overthe past number of years,especially at the top end,and this makes it anothervery important category,”

he continues. “With Martell we are active inthis segment with new launches to drive valuethrough innovation.”

The bottle’s craftsmanship is the epit-ome of French elegance. The Martell swal-low is represented in gold with a diamond

eye and complemented by the cognac house’sname above the centenary visual code: theinfinity sign which also represents the fig-ure 100. The bottle’s neck highlights thegold sculpture work through the godron, one

of Boucheron’s key codes. Adding the finaltouch is a white gold seal and a white goldlid crowned with a lapis-lazuli stone, inspiredby the cabochon, another distinctive code ofBoucheron. The Ultimate Jewel is presentedin a specially designed box, using Martell’sdistinctive color blue and with a beautifulivory veal skin leather interior. Making thisa true collector’s item, a centenary metalplate marking the occasion is concealed ina drawer at the base of the box.

Additionally, the Martell XO ArchitectEdition by Christian de Portzamparc debutedin Hong Kong International Airport lastmonth, marking the first time an ArchitectEdition will be released in travel retail.Designed by one of the world’s greatestarchitects to pay tribute to the preciousamber liquid of Martell XO, the contem-porary piece will also be available in Macauand Taiwan Taoyuan Airport duty free storesin December 2012 for the key gifting season,and in Kuala Lumpur International Airportduty free stores from April to May 2013.

The limited edition continues previouspartnerships between Martell and major archi-tects aimed at creating innovative packagingand bottles to provide a unique Cognac drink-ing experience. The Martell XO Architect Edi-tion by Christian de Portzamparc includes astriking gift case that beautifully captures thelight and uses the cognac’s distinct mahoganysheens to create a diffused glow; transform-ing the case into a delicate architectural mate-rial which envelopes the bottle in subtle opac-ity. Heightening its exclusivity, only 2,550

bottles will be avail-able in Asia duty free.

“In addition tolooking within thewine and spirits cat-egory for activationsand launches, wehave to look at whatother premiumbrands are doingbeyond our indus-try,” O’Sullivanexplained. “We con-

sider Martell and Royal Salute, for example,to be first and foremost prestige brands, andour behavior needs to mirror that. Thesetwo new Martell innovations are character-istic of this.” c

“We consider Martell and Royal Salute, for example, to befirst and foremostprestige brands, andour behavior needsto mirror that.”

John O’Sullivan, MarketingManager, Pernod Ricard

Asia Travel Retail

Asia Duty Free speaks with PernodRicard Asia Marketing Manager

John O’Sullivan on Martell and therelease of The Ultimate Jewel

and the Architect EditionBY RYAN WHITE

NEXT-LEVEL PRESTIGE

On its tour of Asia,The Ultimate Jewelwas displayed in theMartell Experienceboutiquesin September atHKIA and in Octoberat Kuala Lumpur

The Martell XOArchitect Edition by Christian dePortzamparcdebuted in HongKong InternationalAirport last month

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:13 PM

New for 2013, �� presents an exclusive Whisky Sup-plement that will have bonus distribution at the 2013 TFWA WE ex-hibition in Cannes. Whisky is the spirit to watch in duty free given itswide popularity with high-spending travelers like the Chinese and theemerging Indian middle class.

The Whisky Supplement is designed as the most comprehensivewhisky source for the travel retail industry in Asia Pacific. With in-depth reports on the biggest brands and up-and-comers alike, aswell as unparalleled coverage on innovation and trends, there is nodoubt that the Whisky Supplement will provide both buyers and sup-pliers with an inside perspective on the iconic spirit.

Editorial Highlights:• Feature Report on Asian retailers and top selling whiskies• Trend Report: An in-depth overview of the year ahead in the whisky

category • Whisky News: What’s new and noteworthy• Tasting Notes: All the seasons must haves from some of the top

whisky brands• Company Profiles: Highlighting the industry’s heavy hitters

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Diageo GTME

92 ASIA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING TFW A AP MAY 2012

iageo recently announced that two new expressions of its iconic blended Scotchwhisky Johnnie Walker will be available in travel retail. The first—a global travelretail exclusive—gives one of the brand’s legendary expressions a new woody,smoky twist, while the second—inspired by the Walker family tradition of creat-ing exclusive “private” blends—offers consumers a strong, sweet and elegant spiritcrafted in traditional Speyside style.

��Just in time for TFWA AP in Singapore, Diageo releasestwo new expression in the iconic Johnnie Walker range of blended Scotch whiskies BY RYAN WHITE

A new limited edition release of the world’s lead-ing blended Scotch whisky will be releasedexclusively in global travel retail: Johnnie WalkerBlue Label – The Casks Edition. Crafted fromsome of Diageo’s rarest casks, each noted fortheir intensity and depth of flavor, this specialedition, bottled at 55.8% ABV, has intensifiedwood flavors and “is a tribute to the perfect har-mony of the oak casks used in the blending ofJohnnie Walker Blue Label,” says Diageo.

Johnnie Walker Master Blender Jim Bev-eridge says: “This limited edition is a chanceto enjoy the remarkable experience of John-nie Walker Blue Label in a new way. Only onein ten thousand of our casks have sufficientcharacter for Johnnie Walker Blue Label andin creating this special edition we really wantedto showcase the incredible flavors that comefrom the casks themselves. The flavors drawnfrom these carefully selected casks have inten-sified to produce a robust and powerfully fla-

vored blended Scotch whisky that has richwoody notes, deep smoke, traces of spice anda long, lingering oak finish.”

Produced in limited quantities andblended in small batches, the bold blend isa contemporary expression of the power-ful 19th century character pioneered by theWalker family, created for true connois-seurs who are seeking new depths of flavor.

Steve White, Marketing Director, DiageoGTME, said: “Johnnie Walker Blue Label– The Casks Edition is a Scotch whiskywith a remarkably powerful fla-vor, the result of almost twocenturies of unbroken blendingexpertise. This limited editionrelease is a rare opportunity toenjoy a bold amplification ofthe powerful cask flavors con-tained in Johnnie Walker BlueLabel—it is rarity redefined.”

Diageo’s second new addition to the Johnnie Walker rangeis Johnnie Walker Platinum Label. Inspired by the Walker fam-ily’s historic tradition of creating exclusive “private blends”for favored customers, directors of the company and selectprivate gatherings, Johnnie Walker Platinum Label has beencrafted by Jim Beveridge “for today’s increasingly sophisti-cated global consumers—the ‘new whisky set’—to enjoy attheir own intimate gatherings,” says Diageo. It is a delicate,smoky blend that embodies the characteristic full flavors ofthe Johnnie Walker range of blended Scotch whiskies.

Jim Beveridge explains: “Like the rare and preciousmetal after which it is named, Johnnie Walker PlatinumLabel is rich and refined, delivering the distinctive depthand complexity that is synonymous with Johnnie Walker.In fact, I believe that if John Walker were to create a whiskytoday, Johnnie Walker Platinum Label would be the result.It is a bold, intense and smooth blend, crafted from someof our most treasured whiskies, for the evolving tastes of

today’s global whisky consumer.”“Johnnie Walker Platinum Label is the richest, most

precious crafted 18 year old blended Scotch whiskyJohn Walker & Sons has ever created—its price pointreflects this,” says Steve White. “We believe that consumerswill quickly develop a real affinity for Johnnie Walker Plat-inum Label and that it will offer real value for our tradepartners.

“It is a thoroughly modern interpretation of the ‘pri-vate blends’ that our company has produced from the verybeginning and is a contemporary blended Scotch whiskythat is perfect for exclusive occasions,” he added.

Johnnie Walker Platinum Label is available now in75cl size in limited Asian Duty Free locations with a globalDuty Free launch of the 1L variant from June 2012. Pricedat an RRP of USD $100 for 1 liter in duty free, JohnnieWalker Platinum Label is a premium whisky that will sittowards the top end of the Johnnie Walker range. �

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onsumer preferences aren’t static, and thankfully for globetrotters the travel retailindustry is especially good at staying ahead of trends and treating duty free shop-pers to new and exciting experiences. Gulf-Africa Duty Free recently spoke with Inter-national Beverage Holdings, Bacardi Global Travel Retail and Brown-Forman

about how they’re going about pleasing discerning spirits lovers in the Middle East. Among the latest developments from these suppliers are new liveries for two iconic

whisky brands, the introduction of a new spiced rum with a big heart and a collabo-ration between two American legends.

�

Liquor Report: Standout Spirits

iddle Eastern travelers are known fortheir love of whisky, and Interna-tional Beverage Holdings (Interbev)is breathing new life into some

promising brands with package redesigns andspecial editions that were introduced at thisyear’s TFWA WE in Cannes in September.The standout Old Pulteney single malt whiskyand Hankey Bannister blended Scotch whiskyhave been boldly redesigned. In addition, a spe-cial two-pack of Hankey Bannister Original and12 Year Old was recently introduced and hasbeen performing well in the Middle East.

Old Pulteney, which is one of the fastestgrowing malts in the industry, has revealeda vibrant new design with a bolder logo todrive a premium message and improve retail

display while at the same time retaining OldPulteney’s distinctive bottle shape and “Mar-itime Malt” positioning.

“Old Pulteney is distilled in Wick, Scot-land,” says James Bateman, Global Travel RetailManager at Interbev. “In fact, there are noother Scotch whisky distilleries there, so we’vecommunicated Old Pulteney’s unique originson the bottle. We’ve also taken the boat and putit to the back so that it can be seen through thefront of the bottle. These changes, combinedwith the redesign of the words ‘Old Pulteney,’have resulted in much more shelf standout.”

Hankey Bannister blended Scotch whiskyhas unveiled a striking, super-premium pre-sentation pack of its 21 year old “Partner’sReserve” that features an elegant black box, pro-

prietary bottle and gold embossedlabel. The new limited edition Han-key Bannister 25 year old “Partner-ship Blend” was also previewed inCannes. It comes beautifully encasedin a Lochinver decanter and luxuri-ous bordeaux-red presentation box.

This new expression has beenspecially selected by Master

Blender Stuart Harvey usingthe very finest non-peatedsingle malts, resulting in adistinctively delicate andsmooth flavor.

Interbev is banking onincreased traction in Asiaduty free with the abovesuper-premium HankeyBannister offerings. Bate-man told Gulf-Africa DutyFree that in the Middle East,

Hankey Bannister Original and 12 Year Oldexpressions are very popular, particularlywith Indian travelers.

“For the Gulf we’ve introduced a gift packfeaturing two one-liter bottles—Hankey Ban-nister Original and 12 Year Old,” Batemanexplains. “It offers a savings to shoppers andhas already been launched in airports inDubai and Sharjah to great effect.

“Duty free is a great channel for us togenerate awareness of these brands,” Batemancontinues. “Hankey Bannister is a very regionalbrand that is popular in India. As such, it’salso popular with Indians living and work-ing in Dubai, which helps us develop in theMiddle East.”

�� BY RYAN WHITE

�

The new presentation ofHankey Bannister 21 yearold “Partner’s Reserve”features an elegant black

box, proprietary bottle andgold embossed label

Old Pulteney has revealed a vibrant newdesign with a bolder logo to drive a premium

message and improve retail display

��

Company News: Pernod Ricard


Asia Duty Free recently sat down

with John O’Sullivan, Market-ing Director at Pernod RicardAsia Duty Free, to discuss thenumerous new launches in the

region that coincide with the TFWA AP exhi-bition in Singapore. We also took the oppor-tunity to ask him about business in generalin the region and get an update on last year’sbig news during the exhibition, the MartellExperience Boutique.

Adding excitement to duty freeAbsolut Watkins, a limited edition exclusiveto travel retail, was launched to the Asianmarket at Changi Airport in February 2011 andwas then rolled out in Hong Kong, Thailand,Malaysia and Korea throughout March.

Absolut Watkins offers the distinct qual-ities of freshly ground coffee with notes of

almond, caramel and warm chili. The detailedimage on the limited edition bottle is cre-ated by celebrated Swedish fashion illustra-tor and artist Liselotte Watkins, famous for herdesigns for fashion brands such as Miu Miu,Anna Sui and Barney’s, as well as for maga-zines such as Vogue and The New Yorker.

In addition, Pernod Ricard Travel Retaillaunched its limited edition Chivas Regal 18Year Old by Christian Lacroix in key Asianairports in March to showcase the new mas-terpiece and bring to life the brand values ofluxury, craftsmanship and excellence. Only3,000 bottles of this striking limited editiondesign were produced, of which a select num-ber will be sold in Asia duty free.

The activity kicked off at Hong KongInternational Airport and Singapore ChangiAirport where elaborate displays were posi-tioned in high traffic locations to generateimpact. The product was rolled out in Aprilto Incheon International Airport and KualaLumpur International Airport.

Also early this year, Royal Salute 62 GunSalute was rolled out in Asia at Hong KongInternational Airport, Taiwan Taoyuan Air-port, Singapore Changi Airport and KoreaIncheon Airport. The product was positionedon premium display units in the first class andbusiness lounges of Korean Air.

“Innovation is a key driver for PernodRicard and we have had some very success-ful recent launches,” says O’Sullivan. “Asmany have come to expect, Absolut has ledthe way with Glimmer and the travel retailexclusive Absolut Watkins.

“The Chivas 18 Year Old by ChristianLacroix, the latest release in the Chivas 18designer series, was a huge success,” he con-tinues. “The product is very limited and willonly be in store for a short time before it is soldout. Probably the most high profile launch wehad this year was for Royal Salute 62 GunSalute, which was supported with luxurious

displays in key airports.”

Luxury leaningsAt this time last year, the Martell ExperienceBoutique concept at HKIA and KualaLumpur—designed to showcase Martell’sunique combination of traditional, culturaland modern attributes—was making head-lines for its high-end, educational offering.O’Sullivan tells Asia Duty Free that over thelast year Pernod Ricard’s expectations havebeen exceeded, both in terms of sales andmaking quality connections with travelers.

“Selling was never a primary objective forthe Martell Experience Boutique as this isthe role of main duty free shops in the air-ports,” he explains. “Having said that, we havehad some good sales, mainly to Chinese andMalaysian travelers. More importantly froma sales perspective our overall performance inHong Kong and Kuala Lumpur InternationalAirports has been very positive since the bou-tiques opened. The growth has been drivenby our Prestige range, which consists of MartellCordon Bleu, Martell XO, Martell Creation andL’Or de Jean Martell.”

Given the popularity of both brown spir-its and luxury offerings in Asia, Pernod Ricardis certainly in a good position going into thesecond half of the year with brands such asChivas Regal, Royal Salute, Ballantine’s, TheGlenlivet, Jameson and Martell. O’Sullivanasserts that outside this subcategory, vodkacontinues to show growth on a smaller scale,and Pernod couldn’t be happier with theinnovations coming from the team at TheAbsolut Company.

“All of these brands appeal to Asian cus-tomers because they are leading brands, if notthe leading brands, in the categories,” O’Sul-livan concludes. “They are also all premiumbrands, most of which fall into the superpremium and above categories, which isimportant to the Asian customer.” �

Asian travelers are known for having a keen eye for luxury offerings and brown spirits, and Pernod Ricard caters to both tastes with a wide range of new releases BY RYAN WHITE

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Pernod Ricard Asia Duty Free


ernod Ricard Asia Duty Free (PRADF) is a leader in theAsian travel retail and duty free market. While it coversthe full range of channels in the duty free market, airportsare definitely the main focus of activity, says John O’Sul-livan, Marketing Director, Pernod Ricard Asia Duty Free.

As air travel is especially strong in Asia these days—and growing—2011 was a good year, O’Sullivan says, with the business reboundingquite well from the lows of the 2008-2009 economic crisis. Accord-ing to the research that O’Sullivan and his team have access to, theAsia travel retail market is actually growing at a rate that puts itahead of global trends in terms of passenger numbers, but also by vol-ume and in terms of the value of the travel retail business overall.

Asia presents quite a complex and varied mix when it comes tothe combination of nationality profiles and preferences. It’s even morecomplicated when you factor in the amount of intraregional traveldone by passengers of different nationalities. Koreans favor agedwhisky, which puts Pernod Ricard in the sweet spot, with premiumbrands like Ballantine’s, Chivas Regal and Royal Salute.

The big emerging market in Asia is of course China, and withChinese passengers traveling more and more throughout the region,the Chinese buyer’s preference for premium brands represents a realopportunity for Asian travel retail. Here, O’Sullivan says, whisky andcognac are among the keys to success. In addition to the whiskiesmentioned earlier, the Martell cognac marque in particular is a lead-ing brand for the Chinese consumer.

Shopping is an important part of the travel experience for Chi-nese travelers, O’Sullivan says. “They’re brand-conscious—a lux-ury consumer category is developing. Our presence is strong andour brands are well recognized, so we’re in a good position. It’s amatter of making sure that when Chinese passengers travel elsewherein Asia, we engage them at strategic airports like Hong Kong,Macau, Singapore and so on.”

Promotions play a double role. Of course they bring in addedsales, but they also play an important part in boosting brand pro-file. “We work both levels with special packaging, limited editions,new launches, exclusive products,” O’Sullivan says. “All of these

help us to tell the brand story and increase interest.”New launches are an important vehicle for creating excitement

in the duty free channel and Pernod Ricard has released a numberof new products in the past 12 months. Absolut has always been anactive brand and its latest release was Absolut Mode, the fashion-themedbottling. Chivas is another brand that is regularly innovating and thisis particularly evident with the Chivas 18 series of designer bottlereleases. The latest was based on the work of British fashion designerVivienne Westwood. Previous releases have been developed with fash-ion designers Christian Lacroix and Alexander McQueen.

Other recent launches from Pernod Ricard include the MasterDistiller’s Reserve expression of The Glenlivet, exclusive to travel retail,which was particularly visible recently in Taiwan and Hong Kong.And cognac brand Martell has recently benefited from the Cente-nary Edition of Martell Cordon Bleu with special packaging and,more recently, Chanteloup Perspective in the Extra category, namedafter the home of Martell.

Significantly, the travel retail team collaborated with the domes-tic side to launch Glenburgie Edition, a 17-year-old limited editionBallantine’s celebrating one of four signature Ballantine’s distilleries.The launch was initially focused on Korea, and response was “out-standing,” O’Sullivan says, with a high proportion of the travelretail allocation flying off the shelves in the first days.

O’Sullivan also notes the recent launch of a single Martell eaude vie in the two dedicated Martell Experience boutique airport shopsin Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. Titled “Millésimes,” the very exclu-sive launch came out in December. �

P

PremiumprospectsThe growing luxury market in Asia meansthere’s more growth ahead for PernodRicard in the region BY ANDREW BROOKS

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Whisky Report

78 GULF-AFRICA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2011

a year with these organizations, the sessionsare hosted by the Dewar’s Global Ambas-sador and consist of a tutorial on Scotchwhisky production as well as a Dewar’scomparison tasting.

“Training provides Dewar’s with aunique opportunity to create brand

advocates in each of its core mar-kets,” Golikeri says. “As the Scotchmarket continues to grow in theMiddle East, we want to ensurethat our key partners areequipped with the tools and infor-mation they need to help drivesales in their outlets.”

“Of our brands there is onestandout product across the Gulfand Africa as a wider region:Hankey Bannister Blended Scotchwhisky,” says James Bateman,Global Travel Retail Manager forInternational Beverage Holdings(Interbev). Bateman’s focus rightnow is on improving the prod-uct’s distribution and visual dis-plays. He says that premium

expressions will be introduced,and the process is already underway with thelaunch this year of a new Hankey Bannisterexpression, 12 Years Old Regency.

This product constitutes an entry into thepremium blended Scotch category and retailsfor about US$25 for 100cl. Bateman saysthat Interbev will aim to launch the HankeyBannister 21 YO and 25 YO super-deluxeblends at Cannes this year. New twin packs(2 X 100cl) specifically for travel retail willalso be premiered.

The majority of duty free consumers of Han-key Bannister in the Gulf are residents originallyfrom the Indian subcontinent, Bateman says. Interms of the travel retail trade, the main buyers inthe Gulf are Dubai Duty Free, Dufry at Sharjahand Aer Rianta International’s regional network.Africa is a complex picture, but Bateman saysGebr Heinemann, Dufry and Flemingo are impor-tant network partners. “Egyptian airports are veryimportant, and will be again once the touristsreturn in confidence. Big Five Duty Free in SouthAfrica and Mauritius Duty Free are very impor-tant retailers of our products, and the expansionof Flemingo Duty Free has made it a real retail forceon the continent.”

In addition to Han-key Bannister, which hasbeen available in the Gulfand parts of Africa formany years, in the lastfew years single maltScotch has been devel-oping a presence withretailers that want tobuild the category, forexample Qatar DutyFree and Muscat DutyFree. “The developmentpotential for our port-folio in Sub-SaharanAfrica is also of greatinterest,” Bateman adds.

2011 so far has beenvery good, Bateman says.At press time, Interbevreceived some very wel-come news that certainlywon’t hurt its globalpresence. The companycarried off no fewer than16 awards at the 2011

he Middle East con-tinues to be animportant marketfor Dewar's ScotchWhisky,” says Vinay

Golikeri, Marketing Director forthe Bacardi Global Travel RetailDivision. The growth in the Mid-dle East reflects a similar experiencein Asia. Bacardi Global Travel Retailhas employed strategic brandpromotions to strengthenrelationships with exist-ing Dewar’s customers andcreate new ones, in theprocess helping to fosterbrand loyalty, Golikeri says.

In June, Bacardi GlobalTravel Retail announced apartnership betweenDewar’s and the interna-tionally renowned NationalGeographic Society. Thenew promotion, called“Dewar’s World of Dis-covery,” gives entrants ina prize draw the chance towin six travel experiencescreated by National Geo-graphic Expeditions: CostaRica; a New York photography trip; aninsider’s tour of Italy; the Amazon; NewZealand; and the home of Dewar’s, the High-lands of Scotland. Depending on the mar-ket, entry may require the purchase ofDewar’s 12 Years Old.

Part of Bacardi Global Travel Retail’s strat-egy to grow Dewar’s in the Middle East sawthe launch last year of a training program withDubai Duty Free, Middle East Airlines andBeirut Duty Free. Conducted once or twice

“TThe Dewar’s brand has seen great success in theMiddle East, largely as a result of creativepromotional activity from brandowner Bacardi

The“Dewar’sWorld ofDiscovery”promotion

!"#$%&%' ()#*++"##Promotions, messaging and experience keep thesewhisky leaders on top in arising market BY ANDREW BROOKS

The new travel retail displayfor Hankey Bannister

Whisky Report

80 GULF-AFRICA DUTY FREE & TRAVEL RETAILING SEPTEMBER/ OCTOBER 2011

International Wine & Spirits Competition.Hankey Bannister was well represented withfour awards, including a Gold for HankeyBannister 40 YO.

The brands represented by the EdringtonGroup are well liked in the Middle East andNorth Africa, says Keith Bonnington, AreaDirector, Africa and Middle East. However,the leading brand is Johnnie Walker, althoughBonnington says the evidence points tofuture growth in the deluxe range—BlackLabel and above.

“Many of the major Scotch brands—including Johnnie Walker and Chivas, whichtogether hold around 60% Scotch volumeshare—suffered significant volume lossesin 2009 and into 2010,” he says. Other cat-egories, such as vodka and cognac, also suf-fered. “The Edrington Group portfolio onthe other hand performed very well with TheFamous Grouse and The Macallan dining atthe top table in their respective categories.”

The market has been buoyed by a morestable economic outlook after a tough 2010,Bonnington believes. Generally, travelersare returning, and one indication Bon-nington takes some comfort in is the recentannouncement that Dubai Duty Free hasexceeded last year’s growth by 16%.

Standard Scotch remains the volumeleader, driven by its traditional blue-collarcustomer base, largely from the Indian sub-continent. A decline in this category over thepast year could be a result of the sudden anddramatic shutdown of construction in theregion following the global slump, Bon-nington believes. The other backbone demo-graphic shopping at the super-premiumlevel is likely to be Asian or Russian andfavors destinations such as Dubai and AbuDhabi for business andleisure travel.

“Our portfolio hasshown stunning growthin recent years,” Bon-nington says. TheFamous Grouse family,which now includesBlack Grouse andSnow Grouse, isnumber three interms of totalblended Scotch vol-umes, with a 6.5%market share. TheMacallan, mean-while, commandsfully 15% of themalt Scotch cate-gory. Bonnington

notes the brand’s huge franchise in Asia,Russia and the US.

“In the next few years I believe consumerswill see some very exciting developmentsacross our malt whisky range,” Bonningtonsays. In particular, The Macallan will seethe introduction of new super-premiumconcepts.

At Cannes, Edrington Group will focusheavily on its super premium offerings, withthe presentation of the latest Macallan inLalique decanter and attention on rein-forcing the travel retail exclusive 1824 range,Bonnington says. “We also have some inter-esting developments in The Famous Grouse,”he says. “And Cutty Sark is waiting in thewings.” Bonnington considers the latter a“sleeping giant,” destined to become a keyplayer once again.

“The key message from us is that 2010 wasa ‘signature’ year for Jameson,” says DonaghMcHenry, Regional Director Asia Pacific,Travel Retail and Africa/ME. “We’re up 16%in the calendar year, and we broke the 3million case threshold. That’s overall, butthere’s the same momentum in duty free—we’re up 14% there.”

Within the Gulf-Africa catchment area,there are some markets that stand out forJameson. South Africa is one such, McHenrysays, with a high recognition level for thebrand: sales into the domestic market totaledover 180,000 cases in 2010. On the duty freeside, McHenry commends the ranging anddistribution work done on Jameson, fromClassic to Reserve, by Big Five Duty Free inJohannesburg and Cape Town. Jameson Sig-nature Reserve, exclusive to travel retail, is

also selling well in Big Five outlets.The consumer streams in South

Africa are threefold:South Africans, inter-national travelers andthose traveling within

Africa. While South Africa is Jameson’sstandard bearer in Africa’s southern cone,McHenry sees signs that Angola andMozambique are approachingcritical mass in the region too.

In the Middle East thestrongest market is Israel withdomestic strength reflected inhealthy duty free presenceand sales. Lebanon is nowbenefiting from initial mar-keting and promotions.Other emerging marketsrecently showing poten-tial for Jameson in theregion are Egypt andMorocco. No one willbe too surprised tohear that Dubai is thekey Gulf market,posting a muscular24% growth in2010—a trenddriven by interna-tional travelers whoplay a significant role inJameson's current global momentum.

On Jameson promotional activity, “we’lldo new global promotions every 18 to 24months or so, as a rule,” McHenry says,highlighting the recent “Experience OurWorld” promotion, which has run globallyfrom 2010 through mid 2011. On special edi-tions for the Travel Retail channel, McHenrypoints to the Jameson St. Patrick’s Day lim-ited edition bottle that was introduced inEurope this spring as a notable success.

For Cannes, Jameson will be focusingon its successes in 2010 and its ongoing pro-motions, including some new promotionalconcepts and special editions that will hit in2012. “We’re still working out the details,”McHenry says, “but we’ll have a bit moredetail on those plans at Cannes.” �

South Africa is astandout market for

Jameson Irish Whiskey

The core offerings in The Famous Grouse range(left) and The Macallan 1824


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For more information on how to participate, please contact:

Hibah NoorEditor-In-ChiefT: +1 905 821 3344 x. 29F: +1 905 821 2777E: [email protected]

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Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:13 PM

British American Tobacco

British American Tobacco hasalways been known for its innova-tive products, and this year thecompany has developed a number

of new offerings that are sure to add someexcitement to the category. New productsfrom the supplier include Dunhill SpecialReserve, Lucky Strike Year of the Dragon andState Express 555.

“Good tobacco is in many ways like finewine,” explains Justinus Nurman, Head ofGlobal Travel Retail Asia Pacific at BritishAmerican Tobacco. “For Dunhill SpecialReserve, we chose the two best tobaccoharvests from 2010. As such, this range isin very limited quantity. Nonetheless, we feltit was important to bring it to the AsiaPacific region.”

The concentration for Nurman and BritishAmerican Tobacco is to maintain a givenbrand’s identity while at the same time mak-ing sure new ideas are regularly being broughtto the table. Dunhill Special Reserve is agood example of this. By giving consumersa new way to think about a brand they’refamiliar with, British American Tobacco iseffectively enhancing the smoking experience.

But the innovation hasn’t stopped at theDunhill brand. This past summer BritishAmerican Tobacco Asia Pacific released theLucky Strike Year of the Dragon collector’sedition to a very positive response. “In Asia

it’s very important to havespecial, limited editionproducts,” Nurman tells us. “Ofcourse, given the popularity of ChineseNew Year, it made perfect sense to celebrateit with a limited edition Lucky Strike pack.”

We asked Nurman how much of a con-centration China is for British AmericanTobacco, and he told us that while having apresence in travel retail within the coun-try’s airports is important, it’s the well heeledChinese traveler that is the real focus. “Thesedays the Chinese are flying more and more,always looking for new premium and lim-

ited edition products,” he explained. “Assuch, it’s important for us to have a strongpresence throughout Asia Pacific at the air-ports where the Chinese are traveling.”

Of course, another consideration whencatering to Asian consumers is tradition.British American Tobacco is currently plan-ning the launch of State Express 555, a brandthat certainly possesses its share of history.In 1896 Sir Albert Levy undertook the jour-ney to the USA in pursuit of the finest tobac-

cos. He traveled from New Yorkto Buffalo on the fastest train

in the world at the time, theEmpire State Express. It

moved at 112.5 mph, animpressive clip in those days.

Inspired by this train jour-ney, Sir Levy registered thetrademark brand State Express555. He envisaged it as anauthentic Virginia blend thatsold on a reputation of thehighest quality. In fact, Sir Levyinsisted that the brand con-tinued to be made by handuntil early 1930, long aftermost cigarettes had switchedto machine manufacturing.

With the new range of StateExpress 555 premium tobaccoblends, British AmericanTobacco now seeks to drawinspiration from Levy’s legacyof quality and authenticity.

“We have taken great effort tochoose the best Virginia tobacco andminutely detail all the elements of the mixto make it worthy of the brand’s heritage,”Nurman explains.

The new flagship variant emulates the clas-sic packaging and colors seen on the origi-nal packs back in 1896. It also carries Levy’ssignature as a quality endorsement thatshowcases over 100 years of proud heritage.

Nurman concluded by explaining thatthe many new developments at British Amer-ican Tobacco are much more than simplyinnovation for innovation’s sake. Rather,the steps the company takes to continuallyoffer something new across its wide rangingportfolio are rooted in the desire to see trav-eling consumers pleasantly surprised withnovel offerings whenever they travel.

“The increased sophistication of ourconsumers will see them looking for more to satisfy their needs,” Nurman says.“As an international player with a strongportfolio, we strive to meet and exceed theseexpectations.” c


This past summer British American Tobacco Asia Pacific released the Lucky Strike Year of the Dragon collector’s edition to a very positive response

British American Tobacco’s business in Asia ischaracterized by a concentration on innovation with theend goal of exceeding consumers’ needs BY RYAN WHITE

Exceedingexpectations

BritishAmericanTobacco’sgoal withDunhillSpecialReservewas tomaintainbrandidentitywhile givingconsumersa new wayto engagewith Dunhill

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:13 PM

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Hong Kong-based Ray Tobacco has made some sig-nificant inroads in travel retail in recent months. As aresult of exhibiting at this year’s IAADFS and TFWA APexhibitions in Orlando and Singapore, respectively, newlistings have come online and promising contactshave been made that bode well for the supplier’sfuture in the industry.

A triple threat, offering two brands of cigarettes(Walton, called a “Royal Blend,” and Ray, an AmericanBlend), as well as Walton-branded whisky and beer, RayTobacco has seen particular success in Egypt recently,with listings in some 50 points of sale—both airportsand border stores—over the last few months. Other newtravel retail listings include Australia, Cyprus and Turkey.

“We’re also working on Dubai, Israel and Beirut,” says Chris Pfister, Export Directorfor Ray Tobacco, “but nothing has been confirmed yet. At the moment our duty free busi-ness is about 50% airports and 50% border stores. We do very well at border stores inthe Middle East and I think many of these locations often get overlooked by suppliers.”

In terms of the Americas, Pfister tells us that contacts made in Orlando in Marchhave led to negotiations with stores in the Caribbean. However, no listings have yetbeen confirmed. South America is also looking like a good possibility for the future;Ray Tobacco has developed solid contacts in Honduras, Ecuador and Venezuela.

“The first quarter was a little slow but things picked up in the second quarter,” Pfis-ter tells us. “We’re looking forward to continued sales growth in the second half ofthe year as we continue to expand our reach in duty free.”

This month sees the launch of a new cig-arette brand from KT&G developed asthe result of a collaboration with thewell known Italian luxury brand. Theworld’s first Tonino Lamborghini ciga-rettes contain premium smoking leaftobacco—which represents only about2% of the leaves grown in the world—and South European Orient leaves.

KT&G says that the cigarettes offer“a soft throat and enriched taste,” andare designed to retain the optimal levelof moisture for an improved smokingexperience. Other high-end featuresinclude what KT&G calls an embossed“lip release filter.” The product featuresthe familiar Toro emblem on the top ofthe package, the charismatic symbol ofthe Lamborghini family, to expressstrength, progressiveness and exclu-sivity. Two variants of Tonino Lam-borghini have been released—L6 (6.0 mgof tar) and L8 (8.0mg of tar). ToninoLamborghini will be available at China,Singapore and Hong Kong Airports fromSeptember 2012.

Also new this year from KT&G isBohem Mojito Double. Bohem is madeof 30% premium cigar leaves, giving thebrand a unique taste and aroma. Show-casing a vintage package design, KT&Gsays that Bohem Mojito Double is tar-geted toward stylish professionals whoprefer a refined smoke.

KT&G releasesToninoLamborghinicigarettes

Tonino Lamborghini cigarettes were designedto be premium in every way and will bereleased this month at select airportsthroughout the Asia Pacific region

Protégé International has announced that Five & Dime premiered a new roll your own(RYO) tobacco at Inter Tabac in Dortmund. The development follows on from Five &Dime’s success in Middle East domestic markets with its iconic packaging, visualizingthe vibrant, dynamic post modernism of 50s and 60s pop art. The company says thatthe Five & Dime brand is “perfect for the modern urban experience.”

Additionally, Protégé International tells us that High Roller RYO also appeared atthe Inter Tabac show for the first time. Those wishing to learn more about the prod-ucts can visit Red Village K12.

Protégé International’s Five & Dimelaunches RYO at Inter Tabac in Dortmund

The Five & Dime and High Roller tobacco brands, part ofProtégé International’s portfolio, premiered new RYOofferings at Inter Tabac in Dortmund

Tobacco News

Ray Tobacco offers two brandsof cigarettes—Walton, picturedhere, and Ray, an AmericanBlend—as well as Walton-branded whisky and beer

Ray Tobaccocontinues growing in travel retail

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:13 PM

Asia-2012-October-v11 9/30/12 4:13 PM

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