I realised that in Clarins you have a group that can foot it with and sometimes excel the biggest (and boy are they big) and best beauty houses in terms of R&D, product creation, packaging, marketing, merchandising and CSR.
Blog
Events
February 2, 2020 – a palindrome to remember, a day to forget
It’s sad and grim on every level. A time to buckle down as businesses, stay safe as individuals. It’s important to keep noting that the travel retail sector historically recovers quickly from crisis. It will again this time.
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Events
Counting the most important cost of a health crisis
There are rocky weeks and perhaps months ahead for our industry but ultimately they pale in comparison to the human cost of such a crisis.
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Airports
Back in Basel as the beat goes on for Dufry
It seems just the other day that I wrote a news story headlined ‘Advent names Julián Díaz new Dufry CEO as acquisition is completed’. In fact it was 16 years ago, on my birthday (1 March).
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Airports
Doing the right thing in Switzerland
I’m confused. Do I turn left (France) or right (Switzerland)? Well, as I always like to do the right thing, I’ll enter Switzerland.
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People
How a tale of unrequited love inspired a business empire
The business empire that he built was worth an estimated US$100 billion. Yet 78 years earlier when he stowed away on a ship to Japan, all the young Shin had to his name was 83 Japanese Yen and a copy of The Sorrows of Young Werther.
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Food
‘Indian food made unforgettable’
It’ s a winning formula based on doing the simple – and not so simple – things well.
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Airports
Anything to declare?
The volumes involved were well in excess of any allowance other than that perhaps of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Pyongyang Sunan International Airport arrivals duty free.
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Events
Let the roaring twenties begin
The 2010s nearly gone. How did that happen? It seems just the other day that I was walking along the banks of the Thames in the darkness of a chilly London night as we ushered in the new millennium.
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People
Tallink touches new heights while Comptoir Libanais provides a feast of the senses
Tallink is generating enormous sales of Krug and Dom Perignon Champagne, for example, and luxury skincare brands such as Dior and La Mer. Just ensuring supply keeps up with demand is a constant challenge.
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Airports
Experiencing a Eureka moment at Hamad International
My final trip of the year, and indeed of the decade, is over. And what a great way to close out the 2010s it turned out to be.
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Airlines
Epitomising the QR code
Maria, the member of the cabin crew who looked after me and other passengers nearby, was charming, warm and professional, nothing forced about her manner, simply an outstanding, natural human host and wonderful brand ambassador.
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Airports
Shannon Duty Free kick starts entrepreneurial excellence
Shannon Airport may also have lit the career touch paper of two young, dynamic and inspirational entrepreneurs who are wholly in tune with the consumer needs, trends and concerns of our time.