Showing travel retail’s great heart

Two of the industry’s big charitable initiatives of 2007 and 2008 share a heart-warming link. This week our media colleagues Raven Fox (publishers of DFNI) announced an excellent cause for their annual fund-raising Charity Ball (29 February at the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel in London). The chosen recipient is the Children’s Research and Medical Foundation at

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The good, the bad and the ugly

A quick return trip from London to Madrid the other day offered interesting contrasts between some of the stores in London Heathrow T1 and Madrid Barajas T4. Generally Heathrow and Madrid count among the better exponents of airport retailing but my experiences last week showed that our sector can get it badly wrong as well as thrillingly

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Savouring the spirit of partnership

Cask 811. It’s a name that promises to be on more than a few malt whisky lovers’ lips in 2008. The cask in question hails from the beautiful Isle of Islay – the ‘Queen of the Hebrides’ as it is often dubbed. It currently resides in the dank warehouse of Morrison Bowmore Distilers, where the air is filled

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Avoiding the perfect storm

Just when it all seems to be going wrong, it all goes right. Airport construction delays, the now all-too familiar LAGs restrictions, a sharp decline in passenger numbers driven by the country’s pull-out from an important regional carrier (Gulf Air) and even – yes, you read it right – a Middle East cyclone. It all

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The Art of Antiquitease

How do you follow a PA by Sean John, flanked by a buxom bevy of lingerie-clad lovelies posing on a podium? With MAC Antiquitease, of course. The Estee Lauder Companies’ traditional Monday night cocktail evening in Cannes needed to go some to top last year’s celebrity-studded bash – but that’s exactly what it did. (Real)

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Andy’s back in the fast Lane

News that long-time Whyte & Mackay Travel Retail Director Andy Lane (above) has taken up a similar post at independent drinks company Ian McLeod Distillers is welcome. Andy is one of the trade’s most genuine individuals, and committed and knowledgeable with it. For the past few months he has been consulting for Ian McLeod Distillers,

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