This has to rank as one of the best collaborative initiatives between a brand and a travel retailer in years. Brown-Forman Duty Free/Travel Retail has chosen an uniquely artistic way to mark the 50th anniversary of its long-time close partner DFS. The Brown-Forman team asked artists from around the world to turn barrels in which
Miscellaneous
And who but my lady greensleeves
Greensleeves was all my joy Greensleeves was my delight, Greensleeves was my heart of gold, And who but my lady greensleeves. – Traditional Decades ago when I was a young boy I used to tell my mother that when I was a ‘grown up’ I would buy her a green dress, in honour of her
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Miscellaneous
The Moodie Report pictures come a cropper
The photos that people send you to accompany stories featuring them often reveal much about the subject. There is one well-known, lovable Asian figure in this industry for example who insists we use a photo that we believe was probably taken sometime in the 1970s – not that he has changed that much… When we
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Airports
Hooray for Andrew Harrison
It is great to see Andrew Harrison being promoted to Managing Director of Manchester Airport from his current role as Commercial Director. Not only is it justified and rich reward for the excellent developments that Harrison has driven across a wide range of sectors (including duty free, consumer services and food & beverage) in recent
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Miscellaneous
Catching up with Usain Bolt
The Moodie Report and our friends at Delaware North Companies last weekend managed where the world’s top sprinters have so often failed: we caught up with Usain Bolt, Olympic 100-metre champion and the world’s fastest man. On Sunday, The Moodie Report was a guest of Delaware North’s UK division at Wembley Stadium for the Community
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Events
Maintaining a champion’s image
It was great to catch up with Colm and Breeda McLoughlin and several of the Dubai Duty Free management and staff at yesterday’s annual Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup race meeting at Ascot racecourse just outside London. The event is the only team competition in horse racing, featuring four teams of three jockeys representing Ireland,
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Miscellaneous
Do you always take your gin neat?…
Feedback on last week’s Blog about ‘The Tommy Cooper Joke Book’ (kindly given to me by Aldeasa’s Martin Petchey) underlines the comic maestro’s enduring popularity (he died in 1984 during a live stage performance); especially it seems in the travel retail industry. I have been inundated with examples of his wonderful dry wit, so just
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Miscellaneous
‘Mentorship’ momentum
The ‘Mentorship Experience’ might not trip lightly off the tongue as a phrase, but based on the openings weeks of the concept’s installation at Dubai International Airport, it’s a project that could pave the way for future ‘Trinity’ style industry collaboration. In brief, this new initiative between Diageo GTME, Dubai Duty Free and Dubai Airports
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Airports
Delta and OTG add flavour to the LaGuardia story
Sometimes a press release comes along that grips our attention in that it conveys the heart and soul of an initiative, as opposed to so much corporate-speak. That was the case with an announcement from Delta Air Lines, which yesterday revealed the eclectic, exciting food & beverage line-up for its New York LaGuardia Airport terminal
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People
Another landmark for a grand man of duty free
Happy news comes through to The Moodie Blog from Fiji, where one of our industry’s great pioneers, Mahendra Motibhai Patel CBE, today celebrated his 70th birthday. The Chairman & CEO of Motibhai Group celebrated the landmark in style as his team presented him with a 70th birthday cake, while his office was decorated in rare
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Miscellaneous
“Doctor, doctor, I have broken my arm in several places…”
Encouragement, cajoling and volumes of literature and music continue to fill my electronic and postal mailbag as I plough into my prolonged medical treatment programme. As one would expect from this industry, plenty of it has been of the cheeky kind. David Spillane of Travel Retail Sales picked up on Brian Collie’s urging that I should continue
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Miscellaneous
Raising the bar at Belfast
HMSHost’s new-look food & beverage offer at Belfast City Airport, which was launched at a special event this week, hits some real high notes for the all-important qualities of newness and Sense of Place, we believe. The Autogrill-owned concessionaire, which crucially, has an investment-friendly 10-year contract at the airport, unveiled a new Harvest Market concept,
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People
A new chapter for Rod Wiltshire
On Friday 23 July, our industry bade farewell to one of its longest-serving and most respected and popular retailers – Aldeasa US President Rod Wiltshire (pictured second from right above), who is taking well-earned retirement from full-time work (though he will remain an advisor/consultant to the Autogrill-owned company). Rod worked with Alpha/Aldeasa for 15 years,