Welcome to Duty Calls. This regular feature aims to shine a light on some of the most laudable examples of altruism and sustainability within the travel retail industry by companies that go beyond the call of duty.
INTERNATIONAL. A new sustainability initiative has launched which will see former travel retail display materials directed to uses which will benefit charities and other worthy causes. The ‘ReStore’ initiative has been developed by travel retail store design and implementation specialist, Concourse.
The initiative will be officially launched at The Moodie Davitt Report’s sold-out Duty Calls charity dinner on 11 May at Jewel Changi Airport, which is being staged immediately prior to the fast-approaching TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference in Singapore. Concourse is generously co-sponsoring the Champagne Cocktail before the dinner.
ReStore aims to reduce the amount of retail furniture, fixtures and merchandising that often end up in landfill sites by identifying projects and charities that can benefit from them.
The initiative provides a dedicated service to collect, repurpose and recycle old materials into new pieces. Concourse said that this could include school desks for education projects, and recycling retail displays into donation points for charity organisations.
The company said that the ReStore team is already working on one such project – The Food Bank – with Lagardère Travel Retail in Singapore, involving ex-retail displays acting as donation points for food collections.
Concourse Director Chris Morriss said: “Our aim for ReStore is two-fold. Firstly, to ensure we are leading the way in travel retail, designing and building materials in sustainable ways wherever possible and, secondly, focusing on what happens to these assets at the end of a project’s life by building a complete service to ensure they get put to good use.
“The Duty Calls dinner, in itself a remarkable event that pushes the message of travel retail giving to those in need, provides the perfect fit for us to launch this new part of our company, and we are delighted to be supporting The Moodie Davitt Report in this way.”
Concourse Group Business Development Lead Mathieu Vazart added: “Encouragingly, we’re seeing a more eco-friendly approach to the concept, design and manufacture work we do for our clients in travel retail worldwide, with an increasing need to use sustainable materials.
“ReStore gives us the opportunity to encourage the industry as a whole to get involved whilst helping those who really need it.”
NOTE: The ReStore team, as well as representatives from Lagardère Travel Retail and The Food Bank, will be present during the pre-dinner cocktails at their display stand as well as during the Duty Calls dinner, where they can explain further details about the initiative.
Currently, there are more communities in need than the team have old fixtures for, so if your business has a store closure or big campaign activation coming to an end, please discuss with the ReStore team in Singapore or visit www.concoursedm.com/restore/. Alternatively, please email restore@concoursedm.com.