Ever since I launched The Moodie Report in 2002 I have come to hugely admire the entrepreneurs within this industry, people who have had the vision, the acumen and the sheer guts to launch and grow a business. As anyone who has steered this path will tell you, it ain’t easy. If it was, as
Events
In the pink in Dubai
Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org) is US$1,000 better off, following the recent Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup and related ‘fringe’ events. At the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup, Abu Dhabi Airport Company’s Dan Cappell and his various playing partners raised nearly AED800 (US$218) from on course ‘fines’, a figure presented to me at the
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Events
John Sutcliffe roves out at The Irish Village
Anyone who’s known former Aer Rianta International-Middle East Managing Director John Sutcliffe for some time will know he is a more than handy singer and musician – so handy in fact that he seriously considered a professional career in the field long before he took up retailing. At the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup party
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Events
From tea planter to tee planter as Sunil makes a splash
Pressure can affect even the biggest names in the business. Such alas was the case when The Moodie Report and You Tube caught up with King Power Hong Kong Duty Free & Travel Retail Managing Director Sunil Tuli as he played the par 3 eighth hole on day two of the Dubai Duty Free Golf
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Airports
The persistence of true champions
There can have been few more popular winners of the Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup in the 19-year history of the event than this year’s men’s and women’s champions, Francis Clark (above with trophy) and Nadine Heubel (below with trophy). Clark, a Gulf-based Englishman who supplies services to the regional duty free industry, won
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Events
Partying hard with the Irish Village people
And I’ll drink and dance with one hand free Let the world back into me Oh I’ll be a sight to see Back in the high life again The Guinness and wine flowed, the dancing was frenetic, the camaraderie terrific. Dubai Duty Free’s annual party to celebrate its Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup was,
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Airports
Providing the water of life
In a world so often gone wrong, it’s nice to report on something gone right. Very right, in fact, if you’ll excuse my liberties with the English language. This week World Duty Free Group announced it had raised over £1,000,000 (US$1.6 million) for the One Foundation from sales of bottled ‘One Water’ and branded jute
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Events
Saluting Sean Staunton
Remember travel retail’s ‘Marathon Man’? We’re talking about Dubai Duty Free Vice President of Operations Sean Staunton who recently completed the remarkable feat of running four marathons in as many months – a daunting 168km in total – in a drive to raise funds (US$11,256) for travel retail industry charity Hand in Hand for Haiti.
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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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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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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