Today is a red-letter day for The Moodie Report as we start trading from our new UK headquarters by the River Thames on the outskirts of West London. We’ve moved just around the corner from our old offices to The Old Pumping Station, a beautifully renovated 19th century Victorian public utility building in a waterside
Airports
Antalya Airport – where a retailer’s dreams come true
“It’s perfect… it’s what we dream of,” The Nuance Group Europe CEO Andrea Belardini can barely contain his excitement. “Look at all these green shopping bags, they’re everywhere!” he laughs. The ebullient Italian has a right to be happy. Trying to film while walking around Nuance-NET Duty Free’s new duty free store at Antalya Airport
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Airports
All change in Antalya; glowing review for Gatwick
I’m filing this Blog from my new, temporary Antalya bureau, on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. To the right of my balcony, there are dramatic mountains; in front of me the bluest sea you ever saw. Beneath me, holidaymakers (mostly Russians from the accents I heard at breakfast) are splashing in the pool or
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Miscellaneous
Bacardi’s breathtaking Bermuda home
A recent visit to the island of Bermuda took me to the breathtaking headquarters of Bacardi Limited, the biggest privately-owned spirits producer in the world. This architectural gem, based on a design by famed Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. This avant-garde building was originally supposed to be
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Miscellaneous
Big in the Baltic
This week The Moodie Report is back in one of our favourite travel retail markets – the Nordic region – where we’re chairing the annual Nordic Travel Retail Seminar. Fittingly, in a tax free market that is so dependent on the cruise ferry trade, we’re being hosted by Tallink Group: the event itself takes place
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Miscellaneous
Who wants to be a Changi Millionaire?
Judging by our photo, quite a few people. As most delegates to the TFWA Asia Pacific show in Singapore this week will have discovered on their return through Changi Airport, this year’s Be a Changi Millionaire initiative was launched earlier this month, and the impact has been immediate. In Terminal 1, the new central piazza
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Events
Such lives we lead
Look at me standing Here on my own again Up straight in the sunshine No need to laugh and cry It’s a wonderful wonderful life No need to laugh and cry It’s a wonderful wonderful life – ‘Wonderful life’, Black I’m back in The Moodie Report’s Hong Kong Airlines’ Bureau, replete with Wi-Fi, 38,000 feet
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Events
China travel retail conferences
To put the record straight… There has been much talk during this week’s TFWA Asia Pacific show in Singapore of the two planned China travel retail conferences to be held by rival organisations in coming months. As reported, GIS Events of China and UK firm Ink are running the China Travel Retail conference in Shanghai
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Miscellaneous
Sole Man: Christian Louboutin enters the beauty business
Some things are just meant to be. News that iconic French shoe designer Christian Louboutin has teamed up with Batallure Beauty to create a collection of luxury beauty products must surely have provoked just one reaction from his army of fans worldwide: “What took you so long?” The first fruits of the Christian Louboutin Beauté
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Events
Singapore show swings into action as a new Foundation stone against cancer is laid
I’m back in Singapore, along with hundreds of other industry executives, for the annual TFWA Asia Pacific show and Gate One2One conference. To me this is the most enjoyable trade show of the year. Singapore is such an outstanding venue in terms of efficiency, climate and facilities. TFWA does a fantastic job and there’s also
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People
Vintage Joel returns to Bordeaux
He’s aged as well as any of his company’s great Cognacs and his spirit is every bit as fine. We’d call him a VS quality simply because it stands for Very Special but he’s actually more of a Louis XIII, an ultra-premium blend of integrity, humour, kindness and charm. He’s a man with Cognac running
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Miscellaneous
Loewe’s Natural Talent
We’re a versatile bunch at The Moodie Report, and fortunately, very little fazes us. Interview with Madonna? No problem at all. Dinner with Julia Roberts? Don’t mind if I do. Lunch with a matador? All in a day’s work. Hang on, did you say matador? Yes indeed, in every sense, we have serious range… The
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Events
It really is more fun in the Philippines
Mabuhay. Never was the Filipino word for welcome more appropriate than last night, as Duty Free Philippines (DFP) began its year-long 25th anniversary celebrations in style. The Moodie Report was on hand as DFP put together an extraordinary, emotion-packed evening of nostalgia, entertainment and, most importantly, recognition of the many ‘hands that built Duty Free Philippines’. The event