Travel Markets Insider Newsletter Vol. 17 No. 3

The Travel Markets Insider newsletter is attached to this post as a PDF file. To open the PDF file, please click on this link.

The annual Women in Travel Retail’s – WiTr — Networking Breakfast that took place in Orlando during the Duty Free Show of the Americas was a great success.
More than 115 wonderful women attended the early morning event, and raised $3,500 for Hand in Hand for Haiti, plus some additional monies for the Escuela de la Calle (EDELAC) Guatemalan charity designated by IAADFS for support this year.
We are looking forward to seeing more of you at the ASUTIL Conference and then again in Cannes.

The past week may go down in the history books as a seminal period in the travel retail industry, as several acquisitions and consolidations were announced that could change the landscape of the business across the globe.

The week started with the news that South Korea’s Shilla Group was buying 44% of DFASS — with an option to acquire another 36% within five years. The goal, said the companies, is to become a global travel retail leader. At the least, the deal gives Shilla instant access to the DFASS operations across the US, Latin America and the Caribbean. Underlining Shilla’s commitment to creating a world class global organization, it brought in former Nuance CEO Roberto Graziani as a Board member and vice chairman of the newly created joint-venture with DFASS. See more details of this developing story on page 3.

Then came the news that Gebr Heinemann had acquired a 60% stake in Schiphol Airport Retail in Amsterdam. In another Heinemann connection, the Houston City Council voted to approve the retail/duty free concession contracts for Turkish-based ATU Americas, a joint-venture in which Gebr Heinemann is a partner. WDFG was also approved for the duty free/retail package at Houston’s William P. Hobby airport. Page 4.

But the biggest news of the week was the not-unexpected announcement that Dufry is acquiring a controlling stake in World Duty Free Group. Coming on top of last year’s acquisition of the Nuance Group, the new Dufry will control nearly one-quarter of the airport travel retail market share, says the company. Details begin on page 1.

Not all the industry partnerships announced last week involved mega-companies. A group of individual Travel Retail specialists represented a variety of brands and product categories, teamed up to create an “unprecedented network” unique collaboration they are calling International Brands Group. Read more on page 4.

Safilo Group has named former L’OrĂ©al executive Marc Schulte to head up its Travel Retail division.

The Travel Markets Insider March 2015 special IAADFS Show print edition may be downloaded in pdf form at the TMI website at travelmarketsinsider.net. We are delighted to present a comprehensive overview on the most important developments in the region that will make a difference to your business today and tomorrow. The TMI 2015 Caribbean Duty Free Review & Directory is also available on line for download. We thank all of our Media Partners who have helped make these publications possible.

Anyone who wishes to receive hard copies of the magazines, please send me an email.

See you in Naples later this month for the Marine Hotel Association Convention, celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year!