Lagardère Travel Retail Asia Pacific COO Emmanuel de Place has confirmed that the travel retailer is to introduce ‘an exciting new version’ of its successful Fashion Gallery retail concept in Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 2 this month, as it also eyes the upcoming MTR duty free contract in Hong Kong.
He says the Changi Airport Fashion Gallery initiative – still to be unveiled – is just one of many ongoing retail developments across several Asia locations this year, as LTR continues to update its growing fashion offer in the region, alongside its duty free, travel essentials and foodservice businesses.
In an interview, Emmanuel de Place said he is convinced that Asia will continue to progress over the next five years: “The market will definitely continue to grow thanks to the passenger growth and all of these emerging countries in Asia gaining maturity and building more and more passengers,” he said.
“So we definitely want to take a share of that at Lagardère Travel Retail, as we have over the past few years.”
GROWTH POTENTIAL IS THERE
Whether Asia will grow in proportion with the rest of the company’s business remains to be seen, but de Place certainly believes it is possible: “It may well, because certainly Asian countries are growing faster than any other region and especially when we look at China.
“The potential of travel retail growth there is definitely enormous, even though there have been some questions in the last few years about that high-end luxury segment of this travel retail market.
“But we still believe there will be some growth and definitely with our development plans across the three business lines as you know, with duty free and luxury at one end and travel essentials and foodservice.”
Lagardère Travel Retail’s fashion stores at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport in China.
MTR IS ALSO OF INTEREST
Meanwhile, turning to Hong Kong, de Place also confirmed that LTR remains very interested in the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Express train concession at the West Kowloon Terminus, which will ultimately connect Hong Kong with the Mainland when it is finally completed.
He said: “When we look at the big project at the station that they are bidding in Hong Kong then definitely that would be a very nice combination of foodservice, gifts, souvenirs and a lot of specialty shops and a duty free offer. So definitely we believe that we can propose something interesting.”
A comprehensive interview with Emmanuel de Place appears in the July print edition of The Travel Retail Business, where he talks in depth about the company’s duty free and travel retail business across the Asia Pacific region.