Spending time in Ystradgynlais but no Tick Tock to be heard

by Martin Moodie |
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Martin Moodie

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

I’m back in Ystradgynlais (pronounced Us – trad – gun – lice), South Wales, today a sleepy little town framed in a swathe of green by the hills of Varteg and Mynydd Allt-y-Grug but in the 19th century considered one of the crucibles of the Welsh Industrial Revolution.

Where once the town was synonymous with the Wagnerian thunder of ironworks and coal mines, now you’re more likely to hear the soothingly sweet symphony of birdsong from the near-70 species of feathered friends that have made the banks of the River Tawe, Ystradgynlais’s rolling green hills and the sanctuary of the Wern Plemys Nature Reserve their home.

It’s not just coal mines and ironworks that have become legacies of the past. The town also once housed the famous Anglo-Celtic Watch Company, known locally as the Tick Tock.

At its height, the Anglo-Celtic Watch Company was Britain’s largest watch manufacturing factory and one of Europe’s biggest. Source: Powys Digital History Project

Set up after World War II, the factory once produced and exported around 30 million watches to countries all over the world while an adjacent sister company called the Enfield Clock Factory specialised in striking clocks, including pendulum time pieces.

Perversely, time ran out for the operation in 1999, globalisation as in so many cases the death of a proud and thriving local industry.

In recent years, Ystradgynlais (1 Lon Y Coed to be precise) has also been the administrative headquarters of The Moodie Davitt Report, home to our Chief Operating Officer (and my daughter) Sinead Moodie.

I have been spending an increasing amount of time here over recent months since Sinead – just 40, a mother of lovely 5 and 2 year-olds, a non-smoker her whole life and a picture of health until earlier this year – was diagnosed with NUT Carcinoma, a rare and ultra-aggressive form of lung cancer (you can read her inspirational Blog here).

Thank you to those hundreds of readers who have reached out over the past difficult weeks to check on Sinead’s welfare (she is hanging in there). Neither of us will ever forget the concern and empathy contained in each and every one of those messages.

As mentioned in an earlier Blog, that’s meant a change of base for me over coming months, Hong Kong (27 °C today) left behind for a few months for the very different climes of Ystradgynlais (12 °C), London and Spain.

My journey to the UK having been delayed by the ferocity of Super Typhoon Ragasa, I flew instead last Monday, the very day TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes was swinging into formal action after the Opening Cocktail the night before.

Back on terra firma Heathrow Airport-style. my Duty Zero by cdf purchase (Laphroaig Four Oak) from Hong Kong International Airport in hand
So it only seemed right to buy a couple of fragrances as gifts from the Avolta-run World Duty Free arrivals store at Heathrow

This was only the third Cannes show I have missed since 1988, the first (2010) because of omy wn battle with cancer, the second (2021) due to COVID-related travel constraints in Hong Kong.

It was a curious feeling reading and editing my colleagues’ contributions from the show on our live Blog and seeing so many of my industry contacts and friends both at work and play.

But it was also deeply reassuring to see how deep my colleagues dug to ensure (as they have over the past three difficult months) our standards did not slip a single jot.

Based on the flurry of comments and photos I have seen on LinkedIn as well as feedback from my own team. TFWA World Exhibition 2025-style appears to have been a big and perhaps unlikely (given the difficulties facing travel retail in many markets) success.

A cut above: TFWA World Exhibition was a triumph for Qatar Duty Free, which not only celebrated its 25th anniversary in style at the event but also won the Frontier Airport Retailer of the Year Award (below) for the third consecutive time. Pictured above cutting a celebratory 25th anniversary cake at the Frontier Awards 2025 are Qatar Airways Group Chief Retail & Hospitality Officer Thabet Musleh and Lenôtre Pastry Chef and World Pastry Champion Étienne Leroy.

If holding the channel’s premiere event in an ultra-ritzy (and therefore ultra-expensive) southern French city 33km from a regional airport to me feels distinctly anachronistic in this cost- and environmentally conscious age, TFWA would no doubt counter that argument by pointing to the continuing popularity of the show in its long-time home.

The association claims the 2025 edition attracted 482 exhibiting brand-owners (462 in 2024) and 7,999 visitors (compared with 7,456 a year earlier). No Tick Tock syndrome nor fate here then, it seems. So hopefully I can bump that visitor number up to 8,000 in 2026. ✈

Three of my outstanding colleagues in Cannes, Managing Editor Ameesha Raizada, Senior Business Editor Mark Lane and our inimitable President Dermot Davitt. Looks like they are not only more than compensating for my absence but also drinking my share of the wine.
Top-class trio: Brands Director Hannah Tan, Mark Lane and Senior International Account Manager Aran Turner from The Moodie Davitt Report
A lovely shot of our newest team member, Strategic Partner Lead Christelle Hill (left) with Suntory Global Spirits Senior Customer Marketing Manager GTR Mel Carter (centre) and Ameesha Raizada at a celebration of the new Laphroaig 12 Year Old, currently exclusive to Gebr. Heinemann in travel retail. Born in Lebanon, Christelle lived and studied in Paris, gaining a degree in English and American Studies from the Université Paris-Sorbonne before attending the University of Sussex to obtain a MA in International Relations.
Our Publisher Irene Revilla (second from left), my right-hand woman, is a a human tour de force within our organisation while our charismatic Brands Director Hannah Tan (second right) lives up to her Instagram tag, ‘Miss Pure Energy’, each and every day. Here they are pictured with the KOSÉ Travel Retail team, including President and CEO Hiroto Kitaki (middle). KOSÉ Group is celebrating its milestone 80th anniversary in 2026.
Parfums Christian Dior Global Travel Retail Marketing Director Elodie Planchon (left) and LVMH Beauty Consumer & Market Intelligence Manager Global Travel Retail Alex Lacheray (right) welcome Irene Revilla and Dermot Davitt to the LVMH Beauty rooftop terrace
Photos such as this make me realise what I missed so much about Cannes. What a quality quartet. No Moodie Davitt-related Blog would be complete without a photo of the ebullient Kreol Group CEO Lal Arakulath (second left) and his son Kreol Group Executive Director Kreol Arakulath (right), pictured with Lagardère Travel Retail Head of Middle East Dr. Munif Mohammed (second right) and Dermot Davitt.

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