AUSTRALASIA. The major duty free retailers in Australia and New Zealand have all agreed to support sponsorship of the second Australian Airports Association Retail & Commercial Forum.
The event takes place in Brisbane on 17-19 July, co-organised by the Australian Airports Association (AAA), The Mercurius Group and The Moodie Davitt Report, with the theme, ‘Beyond Recovery – Accelerating Growth’.
The industry support panel partnership model for the Retail & Commercial Forum was introduced by organisers in 2022 and has again been adopted this year. The idea behind the support panels is that all players in a sector can be part of the event in a cost-effective manner in an industry-wide show of solidarity for the travel retail sector.
The duty free support panel for 2023 includes Lotte Duty Free, DFS Group, Heinemann Australia, Dufry and LagardèreAWPL.
AAA Chief Executive James Goodwin said: “It is great to see this level of collaboration between companies who are otherwise competitors in order to see this event succeed. This approach worked well for the last year’s inaugural event and this latest announcement shows high quality companies are prepared to get behind it again.”
DFS Vice President Oceania Prashant Mahboobani said: “Although our airport presence in Oceania is limited at the moment, we are excited about the developments that are taking place in the upcoming few years and see tremendous value in this event. We have downtown duty free stores in five locations – Sydney, Cairns and Brisbane (coming soon), Auckland and Queenstown and we remain interested in airport concessions for the right opportunity.”
Dufry Australia General Manager Philippe Boyer said: “The AAA Forum presents a chance to connect with the industry in Australia and New Zealand, a market Dufry has operated for more than 20 years and remains committed to. We look forward to participating at the Brisbane event.”
Heinemann Australia Managing Director George Tsoukalas said: “We have proven our commitment to the airport duty free market in Australia, having extended our concession and invested heavily in redeveloping our store in Sydney, in addition to redeveloping and expanding our location in the new international terminal at Gold Coast Airport. We are also looking forward to opening our new stores in Sydney Airport’s domestic terminals in 2023. So for us, this event is a must-attend.”
LagardèreAWPL CEO Przemek Lesniak said: “With our duty free operation renewed at Auckland Airport to go with our extended concession at Adelaide, as well as existing operations at Cairns, LagardèreAWPL is committed to growing our duty free business in the region. Brisbane Airport is a key partner for our business and we are delighted to support this event once again.”
Lotte Travel Retail Oceania CEO and Director Steve Timms said: “Lotte is highly committed to the region’s success. Given the event is in Brisbane where we have a strong base and partnership with Brisbane Airport, we are excited to be supporting the event.”
“Last year, when we pioneered the shared sponsorship approach, we had four top duty free operators involved, and now we have five. Each instantly pledged their support for this second event after the success of the inaugural event,” said The Mercurius Group Managing Director Ivo Favotto.
“Our aim is to give these important sponsors value for money from this event. We will have a dedicated duty free discussion panel on the agenda with a Trinity flavour – with representatives from airports, retailers and key brands – and of course, many of the other topics on the agenda will also be relevant to duty free,” said The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt.
Other support panels will be announced shortly.
For further comment or details on the event and for Australasian sponsorship opportunities, please contact:
Ivo Favotto
The Mercurius Group
ifavotto@themercuriusgroup.com
+61 423564057
For international brand sponsorship opportunities please contact:
Irene Revilla: Irene@MoodieDavittReport.com
Sarah Genest: Sarah@MoodieDavittReport.com
Aran Turner: Aran@MoodieDavittReport.com ✈
