NORWAY. Gebr Heinemann, Travel Retail Norway and Oslo Airport yesterday delivered the final flourish to last week’s opening of the world’s biggest Arrivals duty free shop, with a traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The celebration was conducted by Gebr Heinemann co-Owner Gunnar Heinemann; Dag Falk-Petersen, CEO of airport authority Avinor; and Håkon Fjeld-Hansen, Managing Director of Travel Retail Norway, the joint venture between Gebr Heinemann and local partner Norse-Trade.
Travel Retail Norway has been active at Oslo-Gardermoen, Bergen, Kristiansand, Stavanger and Trondheim airports since 2005.
The new store trades under the Heinemann Duty Free banner.
The great Italian winemaker Masi must love this place – there seems to be more Masi wine here than in the whole of Verona. |
The store, at 4,000sq m when completed (3,500sq m in the first-phase opening, compared with 1,750sq m for its predecessor), is Norway’s biggest duty free shop of any kind. The walk-through store will be accessible from two entry points (one opened last week, the other in October). It is a stand-out feature of the ambitious development of the new airport via an expansion of the existing terminal building and a new pier.
Travel Retail Norway will invest between NOK250 (US$30 million) and NOK300 million (US$36 million) in connection with the hugely ambitious expansion of the airport. The new Arrivals store will be completed in April 2017, when the fully revamped new-look Oslo Airport opens.
Besides providing more than twice the space of the former store, Heinemann Duty Free has also introduced several new concepts. These include ‘Gifting’; ‘Eyes, Lips, Nails’; and ‘Men’s World’, as well as 700 new items and many additional Norwegian products.
Other talking points include more local and ‘ecological’ products; a designated area for Norway’s burgeoning micro-breweries; and a revamped check-out system with 43 cashier desks, up from the current 28.
[Click on the arrow to hear Travel Retail Norway Managing Director Håkon Fjeld-Hansen on The Moodie Davitt Podcast]
The following short films, shot on a digital compact camera by Martin Moodie, capture some of the stand-out elements of each store department.
[Click on the icons above and below to view Martin Moodie’s short films of the new store, which have attracted over 520 viewings. The first film focuses on the wines and tobacco areas.]
[This Gebr Heinemann professional film shows the elegance and scale of the new store]