Proving that partnership can prosper

by Martin Moodie |
The following two tabs change content below.

Martin Moodie

Martin Moodie is the Founder & Chairman of The Moodie Report.

Virtually unannounced, one of travel retail’s most successful and enduring partnerships celebrated its 10th anniversary this week.

The partners were The Nuance Group and A.S. Watson, which, on 7 July, marked a decade of combined achievement at Hong Kong International Airport. 

The reason for the lack of overt celebration wasn’t any shyness – it’s just that next month offers cause for a more appropriate double celebration. August, of course, will see the beginning of the Beijing Olympic Games and Hong Kong will host the equestrian events.

Hong Kong International Airport will be a major gateway to the Olympics so Nuance-Watson Hong Kong has chosen to hold most of its celebrations then.

But The Moodie Blog cannot let the moment pass. Joint ventures are notoriously tricky things, in travel retail as in all business sectors. But here is one that has prospered through the rollercoaster fortunes of the decade, which included the SARS crisis and the subsequent Mainland China-fuelled upturn.

Led by Alessandra Piovesana, a woman of great integrity, determination and humanity, the alliance has become the leading travel retailer at Hong Kong International – recently extending its core Perfumes & Cosmetics and General Merchandise concessions.

When the real celebrations do come, they will be richly deserved.