Swiss Eyewear Group joins Travel Retail Consortium to support its commitment to industry

The British based Travel Retail Consortium is delighted to announce the addition of Swiss Eyewear Group (International) AG to its membership. Swiss Eyewear Group - a new global player in the eyewear field with strong ambitions for travel retail – will be represented by Director of Travel Retail Rebecca Harwood-Lincoln – who has previously held the position of TRC Vice Chairman.

Rebecca Harwood-Lincoln

Says Rebecca: “Swiss Eyewear Group is very pleased to become a member of the Travel Retail Consortium. Having been involved with TRC previously, I know that membership provides excellent networking opportunities within the industry, both in terms of regular meetings between the different representative suppliers and the annual social events for buyers/retailers. There are a lot of eyewear/sunglasses companies out there, so to be chosen as the exclusive representative of the category is very satisfying.”

Adds TRC Chairman Peter Ayling: “We’re extremely happy to welcome Swiss Eyewear Group and Rebecca to the Travel Retail Consortium. Rebecca was a very active member of the group in the past and it’s great that she is back onboard again. Swiss Eyewear Group is clearly set to become a significant player in the sunglasses category within travel retail and its addition to TRC gives us a very strong industry representation.”

Notes to editors: The Travel Retail Consortium was originally conceived in the late 1960s and formalised in 1971 to further the interests and development of the Travel Retail industry within the UK through the member companies.

Its objectives are to raise standards of business within the Travel Retail industry; promote members products and services; discuss industry issues; and provide social and networking opportunities for key travel retail customers at annual events. The TRC is also active in raising funds for charity.

Meetings are held bi-monthly at members or customer company locations covering industry issues, new operators/services, business opportunities etc . Confidential matters such as margins and terms are NOT discussed.

A fun customer event is held annually and has included Easter Egg making at Wood Norton, a Treasure Hunt in Bath, It’s a Knockout, School Sports Day, Newbury Race Day and wine tasting in Jersey. This is followed by a black tie evening event. Consortium custom is that bacon rolls and coffee served for those still around at 1a.m.

All TRC enquiries should be made via the website (www.travelretailconsortium.co.uk) or info@travelretailconsortium.co.uk.

Current TRC Members: Accolade Wines; Aurora; Coty Prestige Travel Retail and Export; Guinness; Heineken; Imperial Tobacco International; JA Associates (JCI Jewellery, Morgan & Oates); Mars; Remy Cointreau; Sekonda; Champagne Taittinger; Swiss Eyewear Group; Twining

About Swiss Eyewear Group:  The Swiss Eyewear Group founders and management team were previously part of the Polaroid Eyewear management team. After the acquisition of Polaroid Eyewear by Safilo this experienced set of individuals, with in excess of 150 years of experience in the sunglasses sector, decided to start their own business and take on the challenge of creating a completely new eyewear company with innovative ways of operating in a global marketplace.

Led by CEO Jerry Dreifuss, the uniqueness of Swiss Eyewear Group is perhaps best-illustrated by its ownership structure, with shareholders from the entire eyewear industry value chain, starting with manufacturing all the way through to retailing. This extraordinary set-up, combined with the management team’s extensive eyewear industry know-how and experience, ensures that the company has an exceptional wealth of industry-relevant skills and knowledge.

February 2015

WILLIAM GRANT FOCUSES ON GROWING TOTAL WHISKY CATEGORY THROUGH CATEGORY MANGEMENT INITIATIVE AND THEATRICAL IN STORE ACTIVATIONS

SWING on by booth 100 at this year’s Duty Free Show of the Americas and you can take part in the highly engaging and entertaining ‘Adopt a Monkey’ activation being run by William Grant & Sons for their cheekily subversive blended malt Monkey Shoulder.

“The Monkey Shoulder activation may be great fun but it also has a serious purpose.  In a highly competitive market we have to be able to offer international passengers something new and something unexpected.  Outstanding theatrical activations help build excitement and drive footfall into the stores and by doing this we give our brands, and our retail partners who are offering them to passengers, the best chance for success.  Match that level of excitement to great packaging and highly giftable travel retail exclusive products and you start to create a truly compelling offering,” says Justin Weston, Managing Director GTR at William Grant’s who will be attending the show this year.

“We have been highly active over the last 18 months in terms of releasing new travel retail exclusive ranges for our key brands; the global rollout of the new Glenfiddich Cask Collection range started in April 2014, to join The Balvenie Triple Cask range and this has been supported by several other travel exclusive products including Glenfiddich 25 Year Old, Kininvie 17 Year Old single malt, The Girvan Patent Still 28 Year Old, two new Hendrick’s gift packs, Grant’s 8 Year Old in Asia, Grant’s Nordic Oak and Grant’s Voyager in Europe, as well as several limited edition and seasonal gift packs,” continues Ian Taylor, Head of Marketing GTR.

“This trend will continue in 2015 and we hope to launch Hudson Bourbon, a majestic craft bourbon from New York State in US Duty Free later this year.  With the recent acquisition of Drambuie and the plans we have to develop new GTR offerings for both our Tullamore DEW Irish Whiskey range as well new news to come concerning Grants Blended Scotch we fully intend to play an active role in the channel for many years to come,” he adds.

 “With Glenfiddich, The Balvenie and now Kininvie we have a leading position within single malts.  This is a critical and fast growing, high value category.  For continued success and long term growth we need to develop category management solutions that help to grow the entire category, not just our brands.” emphasizes Stephen Corrigan, Regional Director North America GTR.

“These solutions must be shopper and consumer-focused and help passengers navigate easily and effectively through what can be a complex and confusing assortment.  This will mean working closely with the operators to secure a fair share of space for single malts in store.  Done well, we can help increase average spend per head and generate more profit for both ourselves and our partners.  We have seen very positive results already through this approach and to underline its importance to us we will be recruiting our first Category Management Lead, exclusively dedicated to the GTR team later on this year.  Category Management and our William Grant approach is something that we look forward to discussing on stand during this IAADFS show,” he says.

“Our strategy has remained very consistent for several years now,” concludes Jose Castellvi, Regional Director LATAM and Caribbean.  “We have focused on premiumising our whisk(e)y offering, on gifting opportunities and on offering GTR exclusive products.  The difference now is that we are able to bring some more excitement to the in store experience through theatrical, eye catching activations like ‘Adopt a Monkey’, our creative Hendrick’s Gin activities or the great launch activations that have run in Las Vegas and across Brazil for Glenfiddich Cask Collection.  This next step has been made possible because we have grown the size of the team and employed a great group of driven young professionals who are dedicated to offering the best possible brand experience to travelers.  We have a really exciting team here in The Americas who can’t wait to see their customers in Orlando and for the IAADFS show they will be joined by our new Managing Director, our Head of Marketing, our New Product Development Manager and our Regional Director for Europe so we have brought out the big hitters and are raring to go!”

ENDS

INFLUENTIAL STAKEHOLDERS SIGN UP FOR TFWA CHINA’S CENTURY CONFERENCE

Twenty major Chinese airport authorities and the most powerful duty free & travel retail operators and airline companies in the country will send delegations to the TFWA China’s Century Conference, organised in partnership with APTRA, which will take place from 10th to 12th March 2015 in the Jing An Shangri-La Hotel, Shanghai.

In addition, the Shanghai Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (SAEFI), will send a 10-strong delegation and various Government departments will also be represented.


All these Chinese companies will nominate representatives to participate in the TFWA ONE2ONE pre-arranged meeting service which is intended to help brands and operators maximize their networking opportunities.

The second TFWA China’s Century Conference promises a busy programme of fascinating presentations and debate on a number of issues and projects that will shape the future of what is arguably duty free & travel retail’s most crucial market.

Expert commentators and industry leaders will be present at the event, for which over 300 delegates have already registered.

The inaugural event in 2013 was acclaimed as one of the best industry conferences on record.

Due to the Chinese New Year holidays and to the high demand, pre-registration for the TFWA China’s Century Conference has been extended to 27th February 2015. Please contact conference@tfwa.com for more details.