UK. Leading cruise retail specialist Harding has agreed a new five-year contract with P&O Cruises and luxury cruise brand Cunard which will see the company manage retailing onboard all ships across the two fleets until 2027.
The ships include P&O Cruises vessels Ventura, Britannia, Arcadia, Aurora, Azura and new ship Iona which will sail her maiden voyage this Summer, as well as Cunard ships Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria.
As part of the contract, the Harding internal design team will continue to work in partnership with P&O Cruises and Cunard’s design teams and architects to “design, manage and build entire retail environments, creating immersive brand solutions on board their ships, building on their joint success in designing the Iona retail spaces”.
For P&O Cruises, the contract also includes the Arvia, which is due to join the fleet in December 2022, as well as Cunard’s new-build ship. The five-year contract extends a 20-year working relationship between the three companies.
Design and brand choice onboard the new ships was also influenced by a survey Harding conducted of 20,500 people – which the retailer said illustrated its cruise market customer insight.
Harding will offer tax and duty free products including fine jewellery, watches and fashion, along with lifestyle and experiential activations, curated by ship and destination. The Logo concepts for both P&O Cruises and Cunard have been exclusively designed by the Harding Logo teams.
Onboard Iona, first-at-seas will include four exclusive stand-alone boutiques, with Mulberry launching for the first time as a stand-alone store in the cruise channel.
Harding Managing Director James Prescott said: “This is a real milestone in the Harding history, and I am delighted to confirm our partnership with Carnival UK across both P&O Cruises and Cunard.
“We have worked closely with the senior teams based in Carnival House, Southampton, in a total Trinity approach to deliver the best products with the right experiences for the guests on board. We are delighted that these two companies have put their trust in Harding here in the UK.”
Carnival UK Vice President On Board Revenue Robert Palmer said: “We are delighted to have signed this future-focused contract with Harding. Working with one of the leading players in cruise retail to build a strong commercial and branded retail partnership as we resume sailing and enter an exciting period of new ship launches for both our P&O Cruises and Cunard brands is an important milestone.
“Harding has shown its ability to retail at a branded and experiential level at sea which will undoubtedly continue to give our guests the best and most inspiring holiday retail experience. We look forward to continuing to work with the Harding team in the coming months and years.’’
Harding said that the contract award makes it the largest cruise retail organisation in the UK and Europe. It has contracts with over 22 cruise line partners across the globe, on more than 62 cruise ships with 250 shops.
