EUROPE. The Central and Eastern European Travel Retail Association (CEETRA) has named Lagardère Duty Free Polska CEO Andrzej Miłaszewicz as its new Chair. His election took place at the group’s AGM in Warsaw last month. Budapest Airport Head of Retail and Property Management Dr. Patrick Bohl, who has served as CEETRA Chairman from 2019 to 2022, steps down and will continue to support CEETRA in the role of Senior Advisor.
Miłaszewicz’s election marks a return to a leading CEETRA role for the veteran retail executive. He was among the founders of the association ten years ago. His near 30-year retailing career began with Carrefour in the domestic market, followed by his move into travel retail with his arrival at Lagardère in 2009.
Commenting on his election, Miłaszewicz said: “Unusually for a very specialist regional and trade sector group, the war in Ukraine means CEETRA has found itself at the very forefront of global news. Across the CEETRA region it placed members at borders, airports, and train stations on the front line of the refugee crisis.
“This has been so much more than an economic or business event – it is a very tragic human story in which our members and our staff have been directly engaged with arriving refugees.
“Furthermore, many Ukrainian colleagues working in CEETRA enterprises – mainly women – have had to leave behind homes and loved ones. The material and psychological impact across CEETRA members has obviously been very substantial.”
Measures taken by CEETRA members as the crisis escalated included:
- Restaurants and airports offered free food, drinks and washing facilities.
- Offices and technical buildings have been converted to accommodation.
- Logistical assistance is being provided for refugee application, onward travel, and the sending and receipt of welfare packages.
Turning to the direct economic impact, Miłaszewicz said that in Warsaw alone 50 weekly flights were lost to Ukraine, and a further 20 to Russia – a direct -8% decline. Of the wider CEETRA region, Miłaszewicz said: “Clearly for border stores much of the trade has abruptly stopped, while the loss of Russian tourism has been felt strongly in Prague, Budapest and other centres where this was significant.”
Reflecting on the pandemic, Miłaszewicz added: “Paradoxically CEETRA has organised the biggest number of its Travel Retail Forums over the past two years, including four in 2021 alone. This reflected that CEETRA members, of necessity, temporarily put advocacy to one side, including our lobbying for arrivals duty stores, which is one of CEETRA’s core aspirations. Instead, we have pushed CEETRA forward as a means of urgent, and very successful, business exchange.”
He also cited the benefits of CEETRA as a business development tool: “Many, many more companies – especially the excellent array of local brands from the CEETRA region – should become members.
“99% of the travel retail trade has stopped selling Russian alcohol which has produced a gap which producers, such as Poland’s Chopin Vodka, would do well to spearhead through our channel – these indigenous brands should aim to get the very same advantages long-enjoyed by the biggest global brands who have always used travel retail for market positioning.”
To support these desires Miłaszewicz said he wanted CEETRA to take its meetings to other destinations in the future. “After the years of lockdown we immediately need to focus our current meeting schedules on our member countries, in the EU and Balkan states, but later we obviously want to take in other states such as Georgia, Moldova – and I hope, in good time, Ukraine, where travel retail will make an important financial contribution to the reconstruction of shattered airport infrastructure.”
The CEETRA Board now comprises:
Chair: Andrzej Milaszewicz – CEO, Lagardère Duty Free Polska
Treasurer: Nebojsa Cirjakovic, External Affairs Manager Global Travel Retail, British American Tobacco
Benjamin Dillmann, Corporate Affairs Manager, Gebr. Heinemann
Gyte Landreau – Global Customer Manager, Pernod Ricard (new board member)
Eszter Horváth – Senior Concessions Manager, Budapest Airport (new board member)
The Board thanked Patrick Bohl for his contribution in developing CEETRA into a financially stable and more active organisation, and creating the Travel Retail Forum, which last year took place four times, as noted. The Board also thanked Sylvie Ngoma of Pernod Ricard Travel Retail, who served as Treasurer for many years and who also stepped down from the Board.
