Weitnauer Group, which celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2025, has been undergoing its largest ever expansion to date and has been evolving into an expert in cross-category omnichannel distribution in the travel retail industry and domestic markets. A key aspect of this evolution has been the strengthening of its regional leadership in Travel Retail.
Last year, the company hired Diego Lord as CEO Americas – Weitnauer Travel Retail. Lord, who has held senior roles at Campari, Bacardi, and Philip Morris International, is leading Weitnauer’s travel retail operations in the Americas, driving multicategory growth and new business initiatives, and contributing to Weitnauer’s transformation toward a 360° distribution model and strengthen its position as a trusted brand partner.
“Weitnauer is a global distributor that carries a balanced portfolio in six categories with exclusive contracts and premium brands. In the Americas, we are now building on this expertise – moving from a mono-category, and expanding to all the other categories,” Lord tells TMI.
As part of the strategy, Weitnauer has been establishing hubs in key markets across the region. In 2024, it opened a subsidiary in Uruguay, serving as a gateway to the dynamic Uruguayan border market and the growing Brazilian market, while strengthening Weitnauer’s logistics capabilities across South America.
Along with the Uruguay operations, Weitnauer’s Americas Travel Retail business network includes offices in Miami (USA) and Panama, together with Domestic Market offices in São Paulo, Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil), Asunción and Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), and warehouses strategically situated in Canada, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Panama, and the USA.
“Weitnauer is not just a distributor,” says Lord, “but a full-service partner delivering beyond logistics.
“We are distributors, not retailers. We operate in both travel retail and domestic markets. It is about building strong relationships and bringing brands to life in the retail environment. We offer 360° support beyond distribution: brand equity building, training, marketing activations, retail excellence.
“Our core is distribution and 3PL, for sure, but we also have a retail plan called Brand Excellence, where we go to the airports and borders, and do checks at store level – out of stocks, assortment, pricing competition, facings, share of space, share of market. We have insights from the store managers, and have the relationships with the operators,” says Lord.
While Weitnauer has expanded its distribution into multi-categories, tobacco’s pull in travel retail opens doors for the company. In tobacco, Weitnauer has a strong relationship with all of the key leaders: Philip Morris International, BAT, JTI, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, and Imperial Tobacco.
“The tobacco category has an extensive distribution setup across all channels, and we are leveraging that. I doubt any of our competitors can match our reach in the region,” says Lord.
“Weitnauer has an entrepreneurial corporate culture. We have global reach, but with local trust: building local teams with deep market expertise. We are transforming internally, hiring the right people and investing in systems,” says Lord.
