Up close and personal in travel retail
Ever Rich Duty Free is indeed, like Confucius, standing firm at 30. Firm to its values of integrity, professionalism, innovation, commitment to public welfare and dedication to the greater good laid out by Founder & Chairman Simon Chiang three decades ago.
Any requests? Something by The Moodie Blues, I suggest?
It’s a brutal corporate world out there at the moment and with the great Chinese wave that has driven our industry for the first quarter of the 21st century now resembling a series of gentle ripples (in spending, not traveller, terms) reinvention is the name of the game.
The calligrapher kindly asked me to choose a design of my choice. Admiring the bright orange hues and the lovely shape of the lettering, I made my choice. “What does it mean?” I asked. “It means ‘Write like an angel.”
“Your support means so much to us and will directly contribute to creating meaningful opportunities for women and girls across South Canterbury. This small group of women has collectively given and raised over NZ$75,000 in the last three years.”
I feel a ‘Buy 30 get 11 free’ offer coming on. Forget Chief Brody’s famous lines from Jaws, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” For World Duty Free CEO Fred Creighton it will be a case of “You’re gonna need a bigger basket.”
You practically need a hiking pole and boots to get around each Expo hall but it’s worth the effort to see the incredible advances being made by the Chinese across multiple fields.
All of us in travel retail have had these moments of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Not only would a Heathrow transit mean 28 hours or so of flying plus transit time from Mumbai to Hong Kong, but I’d actually not be back in time for my subsequent flight to Hainan.
In family terms, the Ahujas also put the worst of times to the best of use, transforming the family ranch with astounding alacrity and vision into the outstanding facility it is today.
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.
Vivek told me he’s been reading The Moodie Davitt Report every day since he started in the business a decade or so ago, catching up with brand launches, product trends and, yes, my Blog.
For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see/Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be/Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails/Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales
To the non-Kiwi ear (and, it now has to be said after 38 years living overseas, mine), ‘Fish and Chips’ sounds like ‘Fush and Chups’.
