Molton Brown announces strong growth figures - 2016 sees impressive 57% travel retail growth

Molton Brown has announced a strong set of financials for 2016, reporting an impressive 57% increase in its travel retail business year on year and overall global growth of +9%.The travel retail results are driven by both strong organic growth (+23%LFL), and the addition of new business with partners Zainab and Ambassadors Choice.

These positive results contribute to Molton Brown’s overall three year growth figures of +31%, showing the brand’s fantastic momentum, especially in the travel retail and duty free channel.Tim Pluess, Associate Director, Export Sales Molton Brown, comments, “Shoppers in every channel and region of Molton Brown’s business are embracing the brand more than ever, and it is a really exciting time of sustained growth.  I’m delighted that travel retail is leading this increase through the close business partnerships we have, and our go-to-market strategy for Travel Retail – yet there is still so much more we can acheive”.

One of the key focuses last year for the Molton Brown team was the improvement of its in-store execution. The brand concentrated its investment in four key areas:

·     Increasing staffing and level of services to build up its customer experience in travel retail locations

·     Improving the look and feel of its counters through refits such as LHR T4 and increased visual merchandising props investment in key locations

·     Increasing the frequency of promotional activities to support all three blockbuster campaigns

·     Driving footfall to its travel retail locations through a partnership with Condé Nast Traveller and collaboration with British Airways.

“We have been looking at ways to align the customer experience in travel retail with our SAS. For example, we are now able to offer our signature hand and arm massages in more locations in travel retail thanks to the sinks we have introduced as part of our refit program. We’ve been able to create exciting in-store theatre in key locations by investing in the same visual merchandising props and decoration as our SAS to bring to life our beautiful and compelling stories of exploration. This created a very positive environment for our products to perform with all our key categories and core blends being on a plus, and our new product development being very well received by our customers,” adds Pluess.

Tim Pluess

2016 also saw record-breaking launches for Molton Brown’s Dewy Lily of the Valley & Star Anise and Rosa Absolute collections. Says Pluess, “We’ve seen dramatic growth for our EDT and home fragrance categories showing that our strategy to offer an overall luxurious fragrance experience as opposed to just a bathing ritual is paying off.”

2017 will see Molton Brown continue to pursue its strategy of international travel retail and duty free expansion, with a particular interest in looking at opportunities to strengthen its collaboration with key partners such as Dufry and Lagardère to meet its objective to be featured in the top 20 airports by 2020.