The Moodie Report was delighted to attend a lunch last Friday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Travel Retail Consortium, the association of suppliers and distributors to the UK travel retail market. It’s an association that has seen different members come and go, and that has witnessed huge changes to the UK corporate landscape,
Events
Sweet merci
Don’t ask me how. The only answer is somehow. But, ultimately, the score tells the result and the headline (below) tells the story. Sweet merci indeed. The French turned up to play. And how they played. Boldly, bravely, brilliantly. The All Blacks hung on, clung on. They dug as deep as any team possibly can. And
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Events
Destiny or disaster?
The time for talking (and there’s been plenty of it) is over. Today is Rugby World Cup final day in Auckland and in a few hours the All Blacks will face their traditional nemesis France in what promises to be an epic encounter. Last night at the Sidmart restaurant in Ponsonby, OIivier Bottrie, President, Travel
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Miscellaneous
For game and country…
Do you think winning the Rugby World Cup might mean a lot to the Kiwis? Do you think we tend to take game a little seriously in these parts? If one was in any doubt then all you have to do is pick up a copy of today’s New Zealand Herald. The entire front page
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Events
Breeda gets her hands on the World Cup
Ireland may have been knocked out of the Rugby World Cup in the quarter-final with Wales, but one well-known Irish individual managed to briefly seize the trophy last night. Before Friday’s Wales-Australia play-off for third place, the famous William Webb Ellis Cup was on display in the corporate hospitality area. Showing it off was none other
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Events
Flagging up a monumental showdown
All across New Zealand anticipation and anxiety are building in equal measure for this Sunday’s Rugby World Cup final between the in-form, fit and famous All Blacks and the maddening, mercurial and occasionally magnificent French – (‘Les Bleus’). From the top of the North Island to the tip of the South (Cape Reinga to the
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Miscellaneous
A new way to wear Cavalli
In a welcome respite from the rugby (Alain who? DON’T get me started on the injustice of that red card) this writer heads off to Tuscany today, for the official reveal of the first Roberto Cavalli fragrance from Coty Prestige. The Cavalli beauty licence was previously held by ICR-ITF. Coty’s agreement took effect last summer,
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Events
All black and blue
A nation expected. A team delivered. Under the fiercest pressure the All Blacks have shed their despised tag as ‘chokers’ and won through to the final of the Rugby World Cup, beating the tough, tenacious Aussies in a monumental semi-final. There they will play their old nemesis, France, who somehow scraped a one-point victory against
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Events
Yes we can…. can’t we?
D-Day approaches. It’s semi-finals weekend in Auckland for the Rugby World Cup and the place is buzzing. So is the ‘travel retail retreat’ at Kohimarama Road in Mission Bay, Auckland. Last night the newly arrived house guests – Colm and Breeda McLoughlin, John and Karl Sutcliffe and yours truly – welcomed Adrian Littlewood, Paul Divers
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Events
Black is the colour…
Choose your colour. Red or Blue? Black or Gold? The choices are few and simple. Who do you support this weekend as the Rugby World Cup reaches its semi-final stages? Downtown and suburban Auckland is awash with colour: plenty of black of course but mounting swathes of gold, blue and red for Australia, France and
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Events
And then there were four…
‘Poms bomb, Wales prevail’ screamed the headline in the Herald on Sunday, a dual reference to the English defeat against a rejuvenated France and Wales’ triumph in the titanic Celtic clash with Ireland. Meanwhile the Aussies reached into the very depth of their collective Antipodean soul to sneak the narrowest and bravest of wins against an
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Miscellaneous
It’s a knockout
I’ve arrived in Auckland, my base for the next two weeks as the Rugby World Cup reaches its knock-out stages. It’s quarter-finals weekend here and the waterfront area around the official fanzone and Viaduct Basin is packed each night with supporters from England, France, Argentina and, of course, New Zealand. Several well-known members of the
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Events
A day unlike any other
“At 12.51pm the fault… can no longer resist the immense pressure. It ruptures, dispatching shockwaves upwards through the oblivious city and through the Port Hills to the sea beyond. In the seconds which follow, the earth writhes and roars like a wounded animal, gripping Christchurch in a web of destruction. This will be a day