Furla opens two new stores with Lagardère

Furla is pleased to announce the opening of two new airport stores in Poland in partnership with Lagardère.

A 10sqm store opened in Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport on November 28th, while a 24sqm personalized store at the John Paul II International Airport Kraków–Balice opened on December 15th. Both stores house Furla’s Autumn Winter 2016 collection.

Gerry Munday, Furla’s Global Travel Retail Director, comments: “Our sincere thanks to Lagardère for their continued partnership and support to the brand”.

Gdansk

Krakow

World renowned mixologists gather for the Marie Brizard Masters

Thirty of the world’s elite mixologists gathered at the Mama Shelter Hotel in Bordeaux last month to compete for the 2016 Marie Brizard Masters L’Orange title.  The funky, hip backdrop for this year’s event is just one example of the company’s new bold, energetic and dynamic focus which, without forsaking its rich heritage, is driving the popularity of cocktails worldwide and reinforcing the importance of the Marie Brizard portfolio as key to any restaurant and bar drinks menu. 

It’s a message that MBWS's International Travel Retail Director, Kevin Baker, believes travel retailers should take note of. “This is the 33^rd year of the Marie Brizard Masters, ‘ he says (indeed the company was one of the first to create bar tender awards), ‘and this year has been more international than ever with finalists attending from all over the world – all five continents in fact from Canada, to China to Croatia; Mauritius to Macedonia to Martinique. It’s representative of the massive investment Marie Brizard is making globally in order to move its brands to front of shelf.

“The cocktail revolution, that in the past has been very Americas and Europe based, is now global and consumers of all nationalities are being exposed to Marie Brizard liqueurs, essences and syrups in bars from Spain to Sri Lanka, the UAE to the USA.  That show-casing – like travel retail – is a brilliant opportunity to engage directly with consumers and motivate them to purchase.”

Baker strongly believes that events such as the Marie Brizard Masters provide inspiration for travel retail activations. “The passion and vibrancy that is evident as bartenders from all over the world come together to show their creativity in combining Marie Brizard’s liqueurs and essences with new and unusual ingredients is unbelievably exciting and is something we are translating into an engaging airport activations concept,” he continues. “It’s a perfect environment to continue to showcasing to consumers – from the bar where they experienced a Marie Crusta or Marie Zest in Hong Kong, perhaps, into the airport from which they are departing for home and looking for ‘memories’ to purchase.”

The activation concept follows the relaunch of the Marie Brizard portfolio at TFWA World Exhibition last October with a modern interpretation of the original Anisette bottle. With a wide and diverse portfolio of some 145 products, Baker will focus on the five hero lines for travel retail: Anisette, Parfait Amour, Apry, Jolie Cherry and Cacao Chouao, all of which are being promoted as central elements of drinks rather than additional ingredients. 

MARIE BRIZARD MASTERS L’ORANGE 2016

Over two days of intense mixing, blind tasting, sensorial testing and knowledge quizzes, the 30 contestants – all of whom had won regional finals – were whittled down to 8 semi-finalists who had to create an original cocktail from a mystery box of ingredients including cardamom, carrot and chick-pea syrup.   The four finalists then presented their cocktails to an audience of 150 at Chateau Labottiere, Bordeaux, the extraordinary cultural centre that combines 18^th century style with contemporary art – a perfect expression of the Marie Brizard strategy.

Alongside the testing, participants were treated to a morning of fun and educational workshops that covered Marie Brizard’s leadership of flavour creation from the citrus family and its importance in cocktails, food and cocktail pairing, and the history of Marie Brizard.

The overall winner was Piotr Sajdak from Salut Bar in Berlin. Piotr will work with Marie Brizard to develop a completely new liqueur for launch in 2017.

The overall winner was Piotr Sajdak from Salut Bar in Berlin.

Piotr will work with Marie Brizard to develop a completely new liqueur for launch in 2017.

“Not only does this give Piotr a huge amount of kudos, but I can see the resulting new product as also having potential for travel retail as consumers seek to find products that are new, innovative and have a real story behind them,” continues Baker.

“We’re still developing the final template for the activation proposal but all the elements are there and this year’s Masters event just further underlines the potential for me,’” continues Baker. “Why? Because this year we have seen entries from all over the world including Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, where the cocktail culture has truly exploded over the past decade and – as we all know – Asia is where the long-term travel retail growth is. Consumers often think cocktails are complicated, but they are not. They can be made very quickly and very easily – with just 3 ingredients in many cases; if we show that to the travelling consumer by creating theatre in the airport, we can engage directly with them to position Marie Brizard as a mainstream liquor brand, not merely a cocktail ingredient – as important as that continues to be.”

Scorpio Worldwide launches two new ultimate ‘boy toy’ collections

As the exclusive inflight distributor of Aviator watches for the past 10 years, Scorpio Worldwide has been used to adapting its watch offering to suit rising trends in the channel. This has proven no different with the increase of Smart Watch technology in the domestic channel over the last few years. Wishing to be the first to offer such technology inflight, Scorpio Worldwide has launched the Aviator Smart Watch. 

Retailing on-board for £159, this new watch has an impressive list of features, including: incoming call alert, Email, SMS, Social Media, Calendar Events, Pedometer, Calorie Counter, Sleep Monitor and Missed Calls. Android and IOS compatible, the watch has Swiss Parts Movement making it of a similar high quality to the rest of the Aviator offering. 

Stuart McGuire, Chairman, Scorpio Worldwide, comments, “We have been watching the rise of smart watch technology for a number of years with a lot of interest. It has become a huge part of the domestic watch market, and it won’t be long until a large percentage of the watches sold in travel retail will have some form of smart technology. Being the leading inflight distributor in travel retail, we were determined to be the first to launch smart watch technology into the channel, and partnering with the most successful inflight watch brand of all time makes it sure to be popular with both our customers and their passengers.

“One of the main issues we see with current Smart Watches offered on the market is the lack of styling, and the fact that that most of them don’t look like normal watches. We have addressed both of these issues and combined classic Aviator styling with Smart Watch features,” adds McGuire.  

For avid diving fans, the launch of the new Aviator Special Ops Professional Diver Watch will be pleasing to the ear. Water resistant to 200M/650ft and constructed with a solid stainless steel 44mm case featuring a uni-directional rotating bezel and screw down crown, this new watch ensures that no man will ever lack style, no matter what depth he is at. The addition of a blue textured dial with calendar and luminous hands and indices means that the time and date will always be to hand. The ultimate high performance watch without the high performance watch price. Tough. Robust. Prepared. 

“The new diving watch is a great addition to the Aviator portfolio. You don’t need to be a diving fan to enjoy the benefits of the watch; it’s stylish look and design gives it a broad appeal,” adds McGuire. 

Large isn’t always better with Rossi D’Asiago

Liqueur specialist, Rossi D’Asiago is ending its year on a high with the announcement that it will be launching a new addition to its Sambuca portfolio, Antica Sambuca Classic 5cl. Available from early 2017, the new miniature sized bottle has been developed especially for airlines and cruiseships, giving the brand a new route into the travel retail channel. 

Export Director, Nicola Dal Toso comments, “Our full-sized bottle is ideal for the airport shop floor, but we realised we would need to adapt its size if we wanted to offer our Sambuca both inflight and on ships. The new size is perfect for airlines and cruiseships that want to offer something different to drink to their passengers, and don’t want to just stick to the usual spirit choices.”

Currently only offering the Classic Antica Sambuca in the new 5cl, Rossi D’Asiago aims to release additional flavours in the near future. Adds Dal Toso, “Our Antica line offers a wide range of flavours including: Liquorice, Raspberry, Banana, Apple, Coffee, Cherry and Tropical. For the moment we have just focused on our classic Antica Sambuca product, when the timing is right and there is more of a demand, we will add to the portfolio with more flavours.” 

Celebration Dubai! - Davidoff promotion aims to drive volume sales at Dubai Airport this December

In celebration of Dubai Duty Free’s 33rd anniversary this December, Imperial Tobacco is installing an exciting new customer-specific Davidoff activation at Dubai International Airport.

December is Dubai Airport’s busiest month of the year, with an estimated 8 million passengers bustling through the airport and taking advantage of Dubai Duty Free’s spectacular stores and offers. For Imperial Tobacco, this is the perfect time to focus on Davidoff and incentivize travelers to increase their intended purchase. At this seasonal time of year, with plenty of fun and festive activities taking place, footfall in stores will also be increased offering Imperial Tobacco the perfect opportunity for customer engagement, driven via a striking and convincing Davidoff activation.

The outstanding promotion offers a saving of 33% with the purchase of any three Davidoff cartons, or 20% with the purchase of any two. Supporting visuals include a counter top unit, various shelf talkers and posters congratulating Dubai on its birthday whilst staying in line with Davidoff’s ‘For the Hunters’ campaign. 

“Dubai Duty Free is one of our biggest customers in Global Travel Retail and we are thrilled to be celebrating with them,” says Christian Münstermann, Sales and Marketing Operations Director GTR. “This promotion will target shoppers and international brand consumers from the Middle East and Asia who are looking for quality and a good offer.”

“Happy birthday to Dubai Duty Free is an international concept for us to use as a broad umbrella that will be simply understood, requires no explanation and has a universal upbeat and celebratory tone,” continues Münstermann. “It’s a perfect example of how we work directly with customers to create eye-catching promotions that are very specifically targeted.”

Adds Dubai Duty Free’s Senior Vice President of Purchasing, Saba Tahir: “Tobacco is a key category for Dubai Duty Free with Cigars & Tobacco our third largest selling product item with sales of DHS578.52 million (US$158.50 million) in 2015. Davidoff is a leading brand for us and promotions such as these are vital to maintain customer interest and drive sales. We work closely with Imperial Tobacco to ensure promotions are targeted and offer real value to our passengers and results to date indicate that this has again been a very successful activation.”