British company Molton Brown unveiled its limited-edition festive collection, Fabled Juniper Berries & Lapp Pine, earlier this month in London. The Moodie Davitt Report attended the Christmas-themed launch event.
The collection, inspired by the arctic landscape of Laponia in northern Sweden, features pine bark sourced from polar forests harmonised with juniper berries. Other ingredients include frankincense, violet leaf and musk.
The Fabled Juniper Berries & Lapp Pine collection includes a Fine Liquid Hand Wash, Hand Lotion, Single Wick Candle and Festive Bauble.
To celebrate the limited-edition scent, Molton Brown, supplier of toiletries to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, has displayed the Royal Arms in polished silver ink on the bottles. The complete collection is also decorated with jingling blue bells.
Fabled Juniper Berries & Lapp Pine will be available from October.
According to Molton Brown Associate Director Export Sales Tim Pluess, the company’s travel retail and duty free business has seen double-digit growth for the last three years, from a mixture of new business and organic growth. “Organic growth in 2015 across European travel retail was between +18%-25%. In the UK our organic growth was +8%. This year we are seeing even stronger numbers, and expect to finish the year with total travel retail growing in excess of +20%.
“We have so much potential to grow [in travel retail], it really is very exciting,” added Pluess. “In the UK we need to continue to elevate and refine our offering in terms of service and brand experience, something we have had super support from retail partners in doing, as we need the space in store to deliver this. The best example being London Heathrow T5, and more recently Heathrow T4 and London Luton.
“Further afield, we need to develop our European locations further, including new distribution. Again, partner support is key; we bring a highly relevant, category-enhancing opportunity to beauty in travel retail, and retailers are responding to this. We have recently opened in Zürich, and also been well supported in Dublin and Munich.”
Molton Brown’s core travel retail sales come from the body and hand categories. According to Pluess, year-to-date, every product category is growing. “In a category where over €50 is easily spent, many of our SKUs are below €20. Black Pepper and Orange & Bergamot are two of the key selling scents, and our product development team have delivered some exceptional new product development this year such as Dewy Lily of The Valley & Star Anise, and the forthcoming Rosa Absolute.”
Pluess revealed that although the brand’s home category, predominantly aroma reeds and candles, only occupies a niche in travel retail, it is experiencing triple-digit growth this year versus 2015.
“Sell-out for travel exclusive SKUs we relaunched this year grew by +300% in the first six months, which was a superb result. We are looking forward to a big festive season, as unusually, Q4 is still our largest period for sell-out in travel retail,” Pluess said.
