Today I had the immense pleasure of lunching with one of our industry’s great figures – Cecil Macdonald & Co President John Sankey. For more than half a century John has shaped and driven the magnificent success story of one of travel retail’s best independent companies. He not only forged a superb distribution and agency business
Events
A MIS-HIT strikes its target
Warm thanks to all those industry golfers who participated in the 2010 Moodie International Superstars Honorary Invitation Tournament (the ‘MIS-HIT’) at the Cannes duty free show last October. As reported in an earlier Blog, I was unable to host the tournament due to my recovery from treatment for stomach cancer at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
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Miscellaneous
Pro-industry legislation, rare and welcome
As an industry, we invest much time and energy facing down legislative threats to the business. So when a piece of legislation comes along that enhances the status of duty free – and in Europe, at that – it’s something that appears rare and precious. Yet that’s what we are applauding this week, after the
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Events
A royal day out with Dubai Duty Free
[Left to right: Colm McLoughlin, Fedora, Martin Moodie, Breeda McLoughlin] Dubai Duty Free’s brace of horse racing days at Newbury racecourse near London this week proved, as usual, a big success. The Moodie Report Publisher was on hand to try out his recently acquired Fedora (as recommended by one Breeda McLoughlin) and to enjoy the
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Airports
Every picture tells a (Vuitton) story
The new Louis Vuitton store at Incheon International Airport (the world’s first airport Vuitton store) is going to be a spectacular place, according to The Moodie Report’s John Rimmer who travelled through Incheon this morning. The store, run by The Shilla Duty Free, will open in September and is expected to generate annual sales of around
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Airports
Theatre of the absurd
You ain’t seen nothin’ yet B-B-B-Baby, you just ain’t seen nothin’ yet Here’s something that you never gonna forget B-B-B-Baby, you just ain’t seen nothin’ yet – You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, Bachman Turner Overdrive ‘Airports braced for check-in chaos as EU plans to lift liquids ban’ ran the headline this week in the online
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Miscellaneous
Hands across the ocean
Several months after facing one of my most challenging ‘conference’ audiences, I returned last week to hear the audience feedback. The venue was Montpelier Primary School in London, attended by my children Ali (age 10) and Samira (9). As my Blog readers will know from an earlier report, the school decided to organise a charity
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Airports
Threatened duty free seizures lead to uproar
First there was road rage, then air rage, now it appears duty free rage has been born. And given the variance in LAGs regulations around the world – and the interpretation of them – should we be surprised? According to today’s Manchester Evening News, a near riot occurred after ‘around 100’ travellers faced the seizure of
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Miscellaneous
Facing industry threat and the challenge of newness
This week’s ACI Europe Trading Conference in Dublin proved one of the best of recent years, with a strong return to form in attendance terms (over 360) plus a strong and penetrating series of speakers, nearly all of whom spoke tightly to their brief and crucially, to time. Sessions around innovation and newness (on day
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People
A moment of release
“There’s no disease in your body as far as we can tell.” The date was April 1. But this was no April fool’s message. The caller was my oncologist’s perennially sympathetic assistant Toni. Both her tone and message were full of conviction – and good news. She was calling just two days after the first