The Moodie Blog

I am not a deeply religious man but in illness I have found a spirituality I did not think existed. Not just in myself but in many of the people I know in this great, warm and embracing travel retail community.

No-one will ever tell me again that we are a superficial sector that simply buys and sells goods that no-one really needs. We are in fact an international cross-roads of cultures, personalities and individuals. Many of the latter are extraordinary indeed.

Since I have been ill, I have been blessed – and I do not use the word lightly – to discover a different, deeper friendship among many members of this community than that I already enjoyed.

I have come to know more about people, about their sense of compassion and comradeship, as well as about their own histories, problems and fears. I have learned more about the personal influences and reading habits of this industry than I thought possible. And I am better for it.

Last night I received an e-mail out of the blue from Francesco ‘Paco’ Heredia from London Supply and ASUTIL. Paco has long been one of my favourite characters but did I really know the man? No. Do I know him now? Yes. I know all that matters.

Paco told me about how touched he had been by my ‘Green Dress’ blog – it seemed to touch a chord with a lot of people – and then shared a story with me that he won’t mind me sharing with you.

I will let him take up the story: “I conscientiously read your comments on the importance of giving ourselves time to do the things that really matter, like buying that green dress or taking pleasure in the smile of a stranger through a bus window… and today I am experiencing something like that because Liliana (whom I have told ‘I love you’ countless times as per your instructions), after a whole life of working (almost 20 years with London Supply alone) has decided to retire to be full-time devoted to our children, primarily our son Nicolas who you know was born with Downs Syndrome. It seems that – little by little – we are also acquiring a bit of wisdom!”

In fact I did not know about Nicolas; just as Paco did not know I have an adopted brother, Alan, who has Downs Syndrome. Through adversity and the dialogue that ensues, we now both know more about each other.

As I began work on this Blog in the early hours of this morning – insomnia is an unwelcome side-effect of my chemotherapy – another touching e-mail came into me, this time from Susan Gray, a lovely, effervescent woman who has moved to Australia to set up the local arm of her Dad Frank’s excellent Concession Planning International company.

Again her words are better than mine: “I keep meaning to drop you a line about Viktor Frankl. He wrote a book called Man’s Search for Meaning – maybe you have already read it. I picked it up in the excellent book shop at the Holocaust Museum in DC.

“It’s a fascinating investigation of the human psyche. It had a profound effect on me. ‘Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’ It’s become something of a mantra for me and absolutely Mr Frankl is in no small part responsible for where I find myself today.”

I like that mantra, forged in much more difficult circumstances than mine, too. So there you are. The dialogue of friends across an international community, from Australia to South America to the UK. Take it from me – it’s a priceless exchange.

Let it rain, let it rain.
Let it rain, rain, rain
- Eric Clapton

Faced by volcano ash clouds, a weak currency, collapsing travel companies and British Airways cabin crew strikes, who could blame millions of Britons for becoming ‘staycationers’ this year and shunning foreign holidays?

Formerly strong forward booking trends for foreign holidays have stalled abruptly since late May, leading to deep concern throughout the UK tourism industry.

But help may be at hand in the form of the oldest British holiday phenomenon of all – the weather. This August has been lousy. In fact worse than lousy. If, like me, you have cancelled a foreign holiday and stayed in the UK, you will have been faced with rain more days than not throughout the supposedly hottest month.

It’s been cold, wet and entirely, emphatically miserable. As have many of us.

So don’t bet too much money that the UK outbound market will be soft again next summer. Escaping with the kids to somewhere such as Greece or Spain in mid-2011 sounds a lot more attractive than trying to escape from them in Blackpool or Brighton as the skies vent their fury above.

Make no mistake about it. The Brits will be back in a holiday location near you sooner than you can say ‘full English breakfast’ and that’s got to spell good news for travel retailers around the globe. Let it rain, let it rain.

Anyone who knows Ivo Favotto, The Nuance Group’s Executive Vice President Strategy & Business Development (who is set to return to his native Australia to become Director – Sydney Airport for the company), knows that he plays a straight bat.

The down-to-earth Italian Aussie is one of the good guys in this business, someone who brings a pragmatist’s view to the science of travel retail – and plenty of passion to boot.

Now word reaches The Moodie Blog that the aforementioned Favotto straight bat also applies to the noble game of cricket – and in Switzerland of all places, not his homeland.

Earlier this month Ivo was awarded the ‘Outstanding Coaching Achievement – Europe’ award by the English Cricket Board and Sky Sports for his contribution to advancing the cause of the sport in Switzerland.

As National Under 13 coach and Secretary of the Cricket Association of Switzerland, Ivo ran coaching sessions through the winter months (no, they don’t use snowballs in Switzerland) and helped put together a strong national under 11 team, which competed very strongly during a recent tour of England.

[Ivo accepts his award from former England test captain Mike Atherton]

In the testimony from the Swiss Cricket Association that prompted the award, Ivo’s fund-raising work was described as “a revelation”. It noted: “Never before had anyone managed to raise so much money for junior cricket, or Swiss cricket in general.”

It continued: “It is fair to say that Ivo Favotto had a huge impact on Swiss junior cricket… in his untiring efforts to organise matches, tournaments and events for young players he has attracted new players to the sport and provided new goals for the more experienced players.”

So, just as Nuance HQ’s loss is Nuance Australia’s gain so Aussie cricket is no doubt set to benefit as its Swiss counterpart bemoans Ivo’s departure.

Along with all our readers, we wish Ivo well back in the shopping lanes (and green fields) of Australia. He’s sure to bowl both sectors over.

Now this is what I call a promotional campaign with taste. And it’s exactly, exactly, the sort of thing that airports should be doing to promote their country’s culture, crafts or traditions.

Passengers flying through Heathrow Airport are to be treated to what we are promised will be the ‘best bites of Britain’, to mark the airport’s first British Food Fortnight.

The idea is simple but brilliant. From 26 August to 12 September, more than 20 airport restaurants, bars and cafés will be offering some of the nation’s favourite treats and tipples to provide passengers with “a quintessential taste of Britain”.

[Eton Mess - if you're French, look away now]

Gordon Ramsay Plane Food in Terminal 5 is launching a limited edition three-course menu featuring beetroot and English goat’s curd;  Terminal 4’s London-themed Dining Street Restaurant will offer passengers treats such as Jam Roly-Poly Pudding, Kentish Crumble and Eton Mess (if you’re French, look away now….).

Caviar House & Prunier Seafood Bar (Terminals 1, 3, 4 and 5) and the brilliantly named (and brilliant in our opinion) Rhubarb Food Bar (Terminal 3) will serve the great British institution of Afternoon Tea, complete with hand-cut sandwiches, warm scones and traditional leaf tea.

The Harlequin will offer Great British pints of ale, including the superb Theakston’s Old Peculier, as well as Young’s Waggle Dance and Bishop’s Finger.

Heathrow Head of Category for Food and Beverage Chris Annetts said the event will become an annual celebration and so it should.

I often think that the Heathrow Terminal 5 developers missed a trick in not making this superb facility more London or UK-centric. Well in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics it’s great to see the airport’s commercial team putting a national flavour, literally and metaphorically, into the offer.

I’ll be reporting live from Heathrow next week on the experience. With all those scones and Roly-Poly Puddings about, it just may rank as my crumbiest story of all time… 

[Jam Roly-Poly Pudding]

The Moodie Report usually wears out a lot of shoe leather visiting stands at Cannes, but this journalist may need to take extra footwear this year, given the number of times she plans to visit the Clogau stand.

Clogau miners dig deep for Welsh gold

Firstly, the leading Welsh gold jewellery brand has promised to bring a little bit of Wales with them to the Palais – music to the ears of this professional ex-pat. While we were keeping our fingers crossed for Mike Phillips in full rugby kit (or Lee Byrne, we’re not fussy!), rocks, water, lush green plants and, of course, some gold, is plenty good enough to staunch the ever-lurking flow of hiraeth.

And, best of all, all visitors to the Clogau stand during the first four days of the show will have their business card entered into a special prize draw for this stunning one-of-a-kind Clogau necklace.

If there’s one thing we like as much as shoes, it’s jewellery (OK, chocolate too), and Welsh jewellery is as good as it gets. We’re getting extra business cards printed to be on the safe side, and plan to visit the stand religiously at least four times a day. Maybe five, if we forgo lunch.

The prize draw will be made at 6pm on Thursday 21 October, giving the lucky winner the chance to wear the necklace to the Premium Evening party. Or give it to a loved one to wear. Or loan it to a Welsh journalist (meaningful hint).

This has to rank as one of the best collaborative initiatives between a brand and a travel retailer in years.

Brown-Forman Duty Free/Travel Retail has chosen an uniquely artistic way to mark the 50th anniversary of its long-time close partner DFS.

The Brown-Forman team asked artists from around the world to turn barrels in which Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey had been aged into pieces of art. The completed barrel art is on display at DFS stores in seven airports – Auckland, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Mumbai, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York JFK.

But it’s not just an artistic and celebratory project. There’s also a fantastic Corporate Social Responsibility angle.

Brown-Forman Travel Retail Managing Director Jim Perry takes up the story: “DFS was a key player in our recent Jack Daniel’s ‘Buy the Barrel’ programme so we decided to commission a number of up-and-coming artists to take Jack Daniel’s barrels purchased by DFS and turn them into pieces of art. DFS will eventually auction the barrels on their website (www.dfs50.com/jackdaniels) with the money raised going to their special charity Hand in Hand for Haiti (www.HandinHandforHaiti.com).

He added: “From the outset the DFS charity efforts on behalf of Haiti appealed to Brown-Forman Duty Free. The Caribbean is and has been very important to us and we do a lot of business there. So when an island in that region gets hurt by a natural disaster, we want to assist as best we can.”

Which is exactly what the company has done. The proceeds of each barrel and its contents of 240 750ml Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel bottles will be devoted to travel retail’s biggest-ever collective charity effort. The participating artists were chosen by a panel of art aficionados who will also select the top barrel in the collection. The winning artist will be the guest of Brown-Forman at the 2011 London Art Fair.

Bravo to Jim (and to Jack) and to DFS. It’s what we call industry collaboration with a conscience.

Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady greensleeves.
- Traditional

Decades ago when I was a young boy I used to tell my mother that when I was a ‘grown up’ I would buy her a green dress, in honour of her and also of my favourite colour.

I grew up but I never did buy her that dress. When she was diagnosed with a brain tumour and given a few weeks to live, I penned her a long note on the day I had to say farewell and return to England from New Zealand where she lived.

“I never did buy you that green dress, did I?” I wrote inside a card that featured the beautiful John Waterhouse painting ‘My Sweet Rose’ (below) on its cover, which shows a woman in a green dress smelling a pink rose.

Even today, 15 years on, listening to Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves (as indeed I am while I write) makes me unaccountably sad.

The point of this story? Simply that so often we put off doing the most important things in our lives, which instead are all-consumed by the pressures of business and other aspects of daily existence.

Since my own diagnosis with cancer a couple of months back, I have been reminded time and again of what really matters. The love of one’s family and friends; the heartfelt support of colleagues; and the unexpected solidarity of people one barely knows.

One of the most moving of the many anecdotes that people have shared with me came from that great big-hearted man Enrique Urioste of Duty Free Americas, who, though not a deeply religious individual, told me how he and his family had lit a candle every day to support his father-in-law who had cancer. “I don’t know if it had something to do with his recovery but we all believed in it,” he said. Enrique has even lit a candle for me and I have promised not to let down his 100% record of recovery.

When I decided I would go public about my condition, part of my desire was to debunk some of the preconceptions the very word cancer evokes. My experience since has only sharpened that desire.

Cancer is not a single condition. It comes in many forms, and in many degrees of severity. The various treatments – chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery – differ by patient. So do the side-effects. What is not helpful is to be told how bad the chemotherapy must be. It is in fact a magical medical development that is ensuring millions of people recover from this disease that used to kill most of those who suffered from it. Chemotherapy is my potential saviour and I see it in no other terms.

Many people don’t know what to say to a cancer patient (don’t use the term cancer victim). Just “How are you?” or “I am thinking of you” does the job perfectly. All the people (and there are many) in this industry who have suffered from cancer – or been very close to someone who has – have told me that the simplest messages of goodwill, repeated often, are what has helped them the most.

It comes back, as so many things do in life, to the basics. And making sure you buy the person that you love your own equivalent of that green dress – before it’s too late.

The photos that people send you to accompany stories featuring them often reveal much about the subject.

There is one well-known, lovable Asian figure in this industry for example who insists we use a photo that we believe was probably taken sometime in the 1970s – not that he has changed that much…

When we broke the news that ex-Aelia Deputy Business Development Director John Rimmer was joining The Moodie Report we duly asked him to send in a better photograph than the stock image we had.

The photo (above) which arrived is perfectly up to date but it does contain a historic element, one that reveals one of John’s great passions – his beloved West Bromwich Albion football team, newly promoted to the English Premiership and affectionately known as ‘The Baggies’.

Behind him you can make out the headline ‘It’s Albion’s Cup’ – a reference to the Baggies’ triumph in the 1954 FA Cup, when John was not even a twinkle in his father’s eye.

Sadly we had to crop out the background in the official photo (below with fellow Executive Directors Dermot Davitt and Bob Wilby) but we’re sure that readers of The Moodie Report will hear much more about that distant FA Cup triumph in the years to come.

Perhaps our most famous cropped photo is one we still use of Dublin Airport Authority Head of Retail Gerry Crawford, taken at the time Bahrain Duty Free (where he was based at the time) won the Frontier Award for Best Airport Retailer.

The original (above) shows The Moodie Report Publisher giving the lookalike Crawford pate a quick polish for the cameras. As you can see (below), the one that usually appears in The Moodie Report has been artistically modified – though look more closely and you will see unmistakable evidence of the shining process that was taking place…

A top speed of 430 kmh on the Maglev train to Shanghai Pudong Airport leaves little time to reflect on the excellent retailing I have just experienced at Hangzhou International Airport and Shanghai’s massive Expo Park, writes Peter Dowling.

But that breakneck train ride – all of eight minutes from Longyang Road Station to Pudong Airport Station (a view from the train is pictured above) – says much about China’s advances in travel retailing and airport management.

The latest advance is the new 96,000sq m terminal at Hangzhou International Airport. Just as refreshing as the beautifully designed Departures precinct is the balance of local and international brands, with top-quality Chinese products featuring the silks and teas for which Hangzhou is renowned.

With Shanghai and its World Expo 2010 less than two hours away by road, Hangzhou’s visitor numbers leapt by over +15% in the first half of 2010, to 28.4 million domestic tourists and 1.4 million from overseas.

It’s no surprise that Chinese flock to Hangzhou, rated the most liveable of the mainland’s major cities. Its West Lake, which has just been proposed as a UNESCO world heritage site, is a national icon.

China Duty Free Group (CDFG) capitalises brilliantly on this local appeal in its airport tea shop, where an ample tasting area invites visitors to get to know the renowned Hangzhou blends. At the same time, the terminal carries international influence in the form Hong Kong International Airport, a 40% shareholder in Hangzhou International Airport.

Xinyu Mao, the airport’s commercial manager (pictured below), told The Moodie Report that cooperation with HKIA had facilitated deeper relationships with leading brands, and more.

“Hong Kong International Airport not only takes part by its share in the company, but also in the management and sales planning for Hangzhou Airport. Ours is the first airport in China to make such a cooperation strategy.”

The volume of people now passing through Hangzhou airport means that Mao and his team will be expanding further just to keep pace. Expo 2010 gives a clear insight into the sort of number they’re expanding to service.

Visiting Expo Park on Shanghai’s hottest day of the year meant that daily traffic was somewhat down (and regular water stops were vital). But thousands of mostly Chinese visitors still queued for hours to enter the most popular pavilions – and flocked to the retail outlets including CDFG’s two licensed merchandise stores.

Thousands of visitors visit the vast Shanghai Expo - and CDFG's retail outlets - each day

Qinghua Jiang, General Manager of CDFG’s Hummingbird (Beijing) Trading duty paid business, showed me the Expo passport that is the top sales item at the two stores. Visitors can collect country stamps after they’ve toured a pavilion, though it would take at least a week to complete the ‘world tour’ of the whole park.

Expo Park, built on a massive scale, offers the Chinese a global playground in their own backyard. The taste for overseas experience, once acquired, will inevitably lead to many more Chinese passports being stamped at international airports. Something to consider as the world’s fastest commercial train smoothly pulls into the station at Pudong Airport.

It is great to see Andrew Harrison being promoted to Managing Director of Manchester Airport from his current role as Commercial Director.

Not only is it justified and rich reward for the excellent developments that Harrison has driven across a wide range of sectors (including duty free, consumer services and food & beverage) in recent times but the promotion is tremendous news for the whole airport commercial revenues sector.

How often in the past have we heard that the voice of commercial revenues is not heard sufficiently at the highest level of airport management? How many airport Commercial Directors can you name that have risen to the very top of airport companies? Not many would be your answer and you would be right.

Andrew is a great guy with a great commercial vision. That has been truly recognised via this appointment as has the importance of his area of responsibility. Expect Manchester Airport to go from strength to strength under his leadership – and for commercial revenues to continue to flourish.