Hennessy gets a drop of the right spirit

This week’s announcement that Parfums Christian Dior International Director Travel Retailing André de Bausset is to leave the beauty house is a classic case of good news and bad news.  After 18 years in total and eight in his current role, André is taking up a new post as International Director for Hennessy, effective 2 February. The good

Read More

Welcome to Brussels… I don’t think so

Sometimes you just wonder if people realise they are actually in the hospitality business… Arriving at Brussels railway station yesterday via Eurostar en route to today’s ETRC Forum, my travelling companion – Remy Cointreau’s newly appointed European Director, Global Travel Retail, Matthew Hodges – and I sought out a tourist information booth to find out

Read More

Reflections of a cleft child

News that a documentary, set in India, and dedicated to The Smile Train, has been nominated for a Hollywood Oscar is just about the biggest boost imaginable for the cleft charity. Smile Pinki is the true story of Pinki and Ghutaru, two young girls in rural India born desperately poor whose cleft lips have made

Read More

A Ray of courage

There may have been a braver, more beautiful speech in the history of travel retail, but if so it came before I entered the business back in 1987. I’m talking about the words of Ray Martin, co-owner with his wife Christine of UK company Travel Retail Training, organisers of the annual Inflight Sales Person of

Read More

Simply Red… simply dazzling… simply Dubai Duty Free

It was the kind of gig, as they say, that you simply wouldn’t want to miss. As a journalist and commentator on this business for over two decades I certainly considered it a privilege to have been there. I’m talking about Dubai Duty Free’s 25th Anniversary Gala Dinner, held last Thursday night in Dubai. What a dazzling,

Read More