As I write this Blog, we’ve just passed US$100,000 in fund-raising on the official Moodie Multi-National Marathon fund-raising site. The big event takes place on 15-18 June (with some variations, see below). That’s a lot of money for Hand in Hand for Haiti, travel retail’s own charity that not only funds, but runs, the wonderful Lycée
Blog
Miscellaneous
Cometh the hour; cometh the Mann
They say time flies when you’re having fun. It also flies when you’re supposed to be training for a Marathon. And for most normal people, that’s anything but fun… Pleasure and pain in such close proximity… In February – just four short months ago – I blogged about my intention to run in the second
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Miscellaneous
Tackling Mount Difficulty
Today marks two years since I was diagnosed with stomach cancer, an important landmark as any cancer patient will know. That day seems an eternity ago. In front of me as I write on a cold London morning is a bottle of Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir from New Zealand which I bought (and, I have to say,
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Miscellaneous
Memories of Danny
May 25 was the first anniversary of the tragic death of CTC-ARI Airports General Manager Danny Galvin in a road accident in Cyprus – and a year on family and friends gathered in Cork to mark the occasion. The event included a church service, a golf outing (where the top prize was the inaugural award
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People
Bionic Bull back on his feet
Meet travel retail’s first bionic Bull. Stuart Bull, long-time International Consultant for Mars International Travel Retail, is now back on his feet after what he describes as a ‘bi-lateral knee replacement’. In confectionery terms, both the Bull knees, worn out after his younger-day exertions as a marathon runner (at which he was highly adept) and
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Miscellaneous
The bizarre new world of tobacco ‘display’
‘Tobacco sold here’ says the sign. But otherwise you wouldn’t know it. The only other evidence that one can purchase cigarettes is the wording alongside – “It is illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18.” Welcome to the bizarre new world of tobacco retailing in the UK High Street, where
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Miscellaneous
A new chapter in our journey begins
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
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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