HUNGARY. Gebr Heinemann and Budapest Airport today celebrated the opening of a refreshed retail offer in Terminal 2B’s Skycourt that includes a new multi-brand fashion & accessories store and a Tommy Hilfiger boutique.
The retailer has also substantially revamped its main 1,400sq m duty free and Travel Value store. In particular it has enhanced an already superb local products offer and created a dedicated premium spirits zone to replace an area formerly dedicated to accessories [we’ll bring you further images and more comment in a later report].
Heinemann now operates 2,217msq m of retail space in Budapest Airport’s SkyCourt terminal, with a mixture of a classic walk-through Heinemann Duty Free & Travel Value Shop, two Heinemann Duty Free & Travel Value shops at the boarding gates in Terminal 2A and 2B, three special retail fashion stores in SkyCourt, a Victoria’s Secret Shop in Terminal 2A, and a multi-brand accessories store.
Before the traditional ribbon cutting, Gebr Heinemann Executive Director Retail and Human Resources Raoul Spanger and Budapest Airport CEO Jost Lammers spoke warmly at a media conference of the highly successful partnership that has evolved between airport and retailer.
“Budapest for us has for some time been a place of pioneering and innovation,” said Spanger, noting that the airport had been the site of the retailer’s first walk-through store outside Germany.
Talking about the various innovations coming on stream this year, he said: “In fashion, which is a more and more important area, we’ve completely renewed the shop for Hugo Boss, our most important brand, and enlarged the assortment and the size. We’ve also brought in Tommy Hilfiger as a completely new brand [replacing Ralph Lauren –Ed].”
Gebr Heinemann also changed its main fashion offer to a multi-brand fashion and accessories store featuring 25 leading houses.
“Our overall shop space is 2,200sq m. This space is unchanged so the goal is to get more from the 2,200sq m than we did before,” Spanger said. Key to delivering that ambition is the retailer’s unrivalled focus at Budapest Airport on Hungarian products.
“Besides the presentation of international brands, our aim is to create an unparalleled local Sense of Place,” he said. “The regional Hungarian products like Szamos Marcipan, Pick Salami or Zwack Unicum are bestsellers.”
“I’m proud that 20.5% of our duty free and Travel Value turnover at Budapest Airport is from regional products – wines, chocolates, food and other items. This is actually the highest percentage across all of our operations.
“Budapest is a beautiful city in a beautiful country. And when you come home from such a beautiful place it’s much more logical to buy something regional than anything else.”
The combination of a diverse and distinctive local offer combined with a powerful array of familiar international names has proved a winner in recent years. Spanger said the retailer’s total turnover at the airport grew from €45.7 million in 2014 to €53.8 million in 2015 with a target to exceed €60 million this year.
He commented: “We always love to come up with surprises for travellers and the enhanced shopping experience with world-class brands we are now presenting in the SkyCourt is a great example for this. The increase of sales since the face-lift of the shops speaks for itself.
A special feature of the ‘Heinemann & Me’ customer loyalty programme underlines the the close collaboration between retailer and airport. The Budapest Airport logo is seen on all promotional materials and the airport offers its own ‘Local Services’ proposition. Members can use Heinemann benefits and all local services airport-wide.
He praised the airport’s long-term approach to business, noting that Gebr Heinemann had been operating at Budapest Airport since 1998 and its contract for duty free/Travel Value runs until 2025. Such length of tenure had enabled and encouraged the company to invest heavily in improving all aspects of the travelling consumers’ experience, he said, from the physical environment to the product offer.
But pure bricks and mortar retailing won’t be enough in the future, Spanger noted. Talking of the growing importance of social and digital media, he said, “Our 165 employees here are at the edge of a new era. For today, tomorrow and the days after, they will communicate with our customers out of the shop 24/7. This is a completely new approach.
“We will be able, with a recommendation engine that will launch very soon, to address individual offers to our consumers. Wherever they are travelling we can reach them… this will be the next step of the revolution at Budapest Airport.”
Jost Lammers said: “We’re delighted to celebrate today a major milestone for commercial retail at Budapest Airport. It’s an outstanding success that we can celebrate with our long-term partners here.
“Alongside very, very strong growth in terms of passenger numbers in 2015 [+12.5% -Ed] and in 2016, we’re also seeing very strong retail business at this airport now – it’s simply booming. The total turnover is growing beyond the passenger rate.
“The total sales turnover at this airport in total retail [including food & beverage –Ed] was more than €110 million in 2015 – outstanding evidence of the success of retail overall at this airport.”
With a number of new carriers [including Asiana Airlines from Korea –Ed] coming into Budapest Airport, Lammers said the future on every level looks bright.
He said that Budapest Airport is committed, via joint marketing and promotions, to supporting its commercial partners’ efforts to grow the business. “We see our role as an airport partner to be very active in supporting them and providing the framework and environment so that Heinemann can do a great job in what they do best – providing and running retail successfully.”
Lammers said that the refreshed retail offer had been based heavily on consumer feedback. Commenting on specifics, he said the fashion offer had been transitioned in some cases to more contemporary brands, notably Tommy Hilfiger, while the relocation of the main store’s accessories offer to the multi-brand shop had allowed more focus on regional products in their place.
“I am amazed and very impressed to hear that this store has the highest percentage of local products across the Heinemann network, given that it is a global player,” he commented. “This is wonderful news for Hungary that the richness, quality and attractiveness of Hungarian products is so popular with our visitors. It really showcases Hungarian products to the world.”
