Up close and personal in travel retail
Later that day I attended the K Hospitality and TFS annual party, a fabulously fun occasion. Asked by Sunil to say a few words, I took the audience back all those 5,806 nights to the TFS launch and summed up the extraordinary narrative since. What a journey this has been.
When Alfons Loacker purchased the patisserie in which he had worked since he was a boy, little could he have foreseen the extraordinary journey the company that bears his name would undertake over the following century.
I’m not so sure that an (albeit elegantly) cordoned-off luxury store – even one bearing the most lustrous brand name on the planet – is actually that alluring.
The bowl of chicken pieces had more bones than a 500-year old cemetery, so many it could have modelled for Kiehl’s in fact, but as we chatted we all agreed the offering was delicious.
If Hermès was a coffee brand it would be Bacha. And if there was a croissant heaven, I promise you a Bacha raspberry and cinnamon croissant would be served at the gates.
What a great occasion it was. One that perhaps marked Lotte Duty Free’s true coming of age as a world-class airport retailer outside its native land.
For month upon miserable month through the pandemic, HKIA resembled a cross between a ghost town and a military hospital. You could almost sense the tumbleweed about to blow along the arrivals hall. How good it is to see the place humming once more.
This is why Americans think the economy is terrible,” wrote the irate critic on X (formerly Twitter) above a photo of a burger, fries and three sachets of ketchup (I know, I know, a journalist should never reveal his sauces).
A Trinity-plus (or quaternity) collaboration if you like – airport, retailer, brand and Chef – is born.
I have not just been on location here but have undergone a full immersion in the culture and tourism highlights of Costa Rica.
On an extraordinary evening, each food course – typically Jamaican of course – was paired with an Appleton rum.
Talk to anyone in the business who knows him (and that’s a lot of people) and you will never hear a bad word spoken of Harry. And at a time when supply chain issues are such a challenge, he has become even more of a go to man.
So here’s a way to save your company expense on that next long-haul flight and support the travel retail industry’s recovery. Simply fly economy and buy loads of chocolate at duty free before you board.