Aurora Sparkles with success

If you had told plush manufacturer Aurora when it first launched its Sparkle Tales range that in two years it would have grown to nearly 100 SKUs, the company may not have believed you. But with rapidly growing sales and demand for a wider offer, the Aurora Sparkle Tales range has been greatly extended for 2019.

“Sparkle Tales has been a winning offer since day one; the unicorn craze in particular has continued to be exceedingly strong and sales have underlined the popularity of the concept. The range has come a long way since its launch two years ago, now consisting of nearly 100 SKUs. We also have plans to release an additional 40 plus styles later in Q3, so the future it very exciting,” comments Gary Stoner, Travel Retail Sales Manager, Aurora World.

New additions to the range include:

Unicorn – Additional styles have been added to the already hugely popular range including Unicorn keyclips in a variety of colours.

Exotic Birds –Choose from Penelope peacock, Flavia Flamingo, Tropica Toucan, Calypso Parrot, or Jasmine Swan.

Sea Life – No matter what Sea Life creature is your favourite, there is something for everyone in the Sea Life collection including: Narwhals, Penguins, Octopus’, Stingrays, Turtles, Crocodiles, Seahorses, and Clown Fish.

Dragons – Additional colours are now available including dark green, dark blue, and black.

Alpaca – A smaller version (7 inches) of the very popular Buttercup Alpaca.

Fancy Pals – The ultimate girl gift– a sparkly unicorn in its very own handbag and a reversible dream unicorn cushion.

Every SKU in the Sparkle Tales range is made of super soft, multi-coloured plush, making each toy a very special product. Adds Stoner, “Over the last 12 months, we have noticed consumers trading up, with the average price point increasing to a double digit percentage – over 13 euros and climbing! We know this is due to the Sparkle Tales range offering a real point of difference to regular plush. Consumers seem to be prepared to pay a little bit more to ensure they are buying a very special product.”

Not only does Aurora have a very successful plush range, but it also provides the perfect merchandising unit, specially designed for travel retail. With a small footprint and the capacity to carry Aurora’s top 20 SKUs, it is ideally suited for high traffic areas to help boost plush sales.

Comments Stoner, “The unit is a great addition to any travel retail store. Not only does it showcase the best of our products with price points from 10 to 20 euros, but it can also help increase impulse sales when placed in an area away from the toy department.”

Friends-International named WiTR charity for 2019

Women in Travel Retail (WiTR), the membership organisation for women in the travel retail industry, has announced that its charity for 2019 is Friends International, nominated by Colleen Morgan of The Moodie Davitt Report.

Voted for by WiTR members, Friends-International is a leading social enterprise saving lives and building the futures of the most marginalised children and youth, their families and their communities via projects in South East Asia and across the world.

Based in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia, Friends- International has projects in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia and Switzerland (serving Europe). WiTR will be raising funds to give beauty salon training for 24 young women, aged 16 – 24, in Siem Reap. This will also allow them to provide for their children and siblings, improving the lives of 100 women and children in total.

Siem Reap is the major tourism centre of Cambodia, and home to the Angkor Temples which attract thousands of travellers every year, bringing opportunity and economic growth. “Unfortunately the growth has not reached the most vulnerable in society, and with limited skills and few options for employment, many poor families end up on the streets with their children. A high number of these are young women, and the risks they face are huge, including abuse, exploitation and trafficking to work in the sex industry,” says Colleen.

This cause touched the hearts of many WiTR members and the task set is to raise  €15,000 to help these young women via the Friends-International Kaliyan Mith (“Good Friends” in Khmer) project in Siem Reap which enables marginalized youth to access skills training in various vocations including the salon project that WiTR will support. Friends’ beauty salon training business in Siem Reap provides a safe space to empower young women to learn market-friendly skills in a customer oriented, real-work environment.

This year’s charity was chosen from seven nominated by WiTR members– three in Cambodia, two in India, one in Bangladesh and one in the USA.

“Just reading the nominations makes us realise how much misery, illness and poverty exist in the world and how those of us who are lucky enough to have security, in our jobs and at homes, need to reach out and help others,” comments WiTR chairman Sarah Branquinho.

Various fund-raising initiatives will be run by WiTR members throughout the year, culminating in the annual meeting and raffle at TFWA World Exhibition in October.

“Every year we are amazed at the generosity of our industry in helping us to meet our ambitious targets. We are always enormously grateful for every contribution, however small and, of course, though WiTR is a women’s organisation, donations are accepted from our male colleagues!” adds Vice Chair Gerry Munday.

Note: Moodie Davitt Report has also selected Friends-International as the

beneficiary of its 2019 fundraising initiatives

Note to Editors:

Women in Travel (WiTR) was created in 2006 to recognise the contribution of women to the travel retail industry, past, present and future and as a forum for the women in the travel retail industry. It allows us a privileged medium to exchange ideas, and just as importantly to support people in need who we believe would benefit from our help. From year to year we help different groups or communities (from Haiti to India to Sichuan) to help themselves, with a strong focus on children.

About Friends-International. Friends-International was born on the streets of Phnom Penh in August 1994. It initially provided services to the street kids found in the Cambodian capital in the aftermath of years of genocide and conflict in the country. The original Friends project, Mith Samlanh (which means ‘Friends’ in Khmer – all programs use a local language version of ‘Friends’ in their name) became a local NGO in 1999, and the organisation went on to expand both its programs and partnerships in the following years, developing social business and child protection elements to ensure comprehensive and creative solutions and services for all the marginalized youth and communities it now works with. The 17 children whose lives F-I changed in 1994 have grown to over 130,000 in the ensuing decades, thanks to its innovative partnership model of ‘Together, building futures’.

ILLVA Saronno shows its commitment to travel retail with two new appointments

ILLVA Saronno is showing its commitment to the travel retail channel with the announcement that it is strengthening its global travel retail team with the appointments of Nikos Tsagarakis and Valentina Cozzi as Global Travel Retail Director and Global Travel Retail Marketing Manager.

Both new appointments show the focus that ILLVA Saronno is putting on the travel retail channel to ensure its continued growth and development.

Tsagarakis initially worked for Allied Domecq Greece for 8 years in both sales and trade marketing, before moving to Boutari Wines S.A where he held the Sales Manager position. After a 5 year stint as Regional Manager at Gruppo Campari, Tsagarakis joined ILLVA Saronno Holding S.p.A in 2011; holding a number of roles including Regional Manager and Regional Director across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

“I have been a member of the ILLVA Saronno family for a number of years now, and every position I have held has added to my professional development. During my time, I have worked extensively in developing brand portfolios in different countries, sharing and improving methodologies and best practices, all with an aim to build upon commercial and marketing excellence and business growth,” adds Tsagarakis.

“Holding the title of Global Travel Retail Director is an exciting opportunity. In the last eleven years, I have had the privilege to work in an international environment that has driven me to form an international mindset and excellent communication skills. As travel retail is the ultimate international channel, I believe that I am well suited for such a role and look forward to developing the global travel retail channel for ILLVA Saronno.”

Valentina Cozzi first joined ILLVA Saronno as a Shopper Marketing and Travel Retail Specialist in 2013. Her main role was to lead the development and the innovation in the off-premise and travel retail channels for ILLVA’s portfolio of brands.

“Since the beginning, I had the opportunity to develop and implement new shopper marketing strategies, like the 360° limited edition project. We developed a high-end, but very cost-effective limited edition bottle in order to create an in-store event. The event aimed to gain a strong share of voice in a crowded and challenging period for dark spirits – Christmas. I’m proud to see the project entering in its seventh year, still true to its origin despite improvements and new tools being introduced - like the very successful collection of limited edition 5cl bottles,” comments Mrs Cozzi.

“After 6 years successfully working in the Global Marketing Team and partnering with distributors to develop local plans, I’m excited to take the role of Global Travel Retail Marketing Manager to further boost the ILLVA portfolio growth within this exclusive and premium channel. Travel Retail is becoming a more strategic channel for every company, with the number of travellers growing year after year, making it the perfect display for brands.”