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Sadly, whenever those of us who attended this year’s Duty Free Show of the Americas will think back on the event, it will be tinged with the terrible news of Alberto “Pancho” Motta‘s untimely and tragic passing that happened after he and his wife Loraine returned home to Panama City. Pancho, president of the IAADFS for more than a decade, suffered a heart attack last Monday, April 11.
The show itself was undeniably quieter than in years past, but still a vibrant pace of business and networking took place. TMI touches on some of the show highlights in this issue.
And a special thank you to all of the companies who so generously donated items for the Women in Travel Retail raffle and silent auction at the annual networking breakfast. WiTr attracted another full house of women at 7:15 in the morning and raised nearly $6,000 for our designated charities. A very special thank you to Gerry Munday and her team at Furla, who co-sponsored this year’s breakfast with TMI, enabling us to directly donate a nice sum to Hand in Hand for Haiti. See pages 1 & 4 for more highlights.
News-wise, the biggest developments in the Americas are two important new duty free concession tenders in North America: one in Canada where the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority has issued the first ever RFP to operate the duty free store at Peace Bridge at the Niagara River Crossing. The current duty free operator opened one of the first duty free shops on the northern border in 1986. Story on page 1.
In the second tender of note, Mexican airport operator ASUR announced it is issuing a duty free tender for the Cancun and Cozumel airports in June. The current operator, Dufry-owned World Duty Free Group, began operating in Cancun as Aldeasa under a contract signed in 2001. Details on page 2.
People. Revlon has promoted David Carvalho and Jerusa Moura (with thanks to IAADFS for the photo); Guillaume Sillani has joined INCC Parfums as export manager for Latin America, and ACI World has appointed respected aviation specialist Stefano Baronci as director of economics and program development. Page 1.
Supply Side. Among the many new products unveiled at the Duty Free Show of the Americas was the new Baileys XC, a travel retail exclusive made with cognac, from Diageo; new 1-liter travel retail exclusive collector’s edition bottles from Patrón Spirits for Patrón Silver Tequila, with more to come; and award-winning ultra-premium Medea Vodka, which features a patented, programmable LED message band on the bottle, and is distributed in travel retail by Jorge Galbis’ Global Brand Equity Solutions agency. Pages 3 & 4.
Awards. The annual DFNI Awards for Travel Retail Excellence in the Americas honored DFS Group as Travel Retailer of the Year for the second time, during this year’s Duty Free Show of the Americas. See full list of winners on page 4.
