IRELAND. Shannon Duty Free scooped two major awards at the 21st Annual Retail Excellence Ireland Awards recently. The airport-owned retailer’s newly updated store won National Visitor Store of the Year and a place in the Top 5 Stores in Ireland award. Shannon Airport, now part of the state-owned Shannon Group, was the birthplace of global duty free in 1947.
The Retail Excellence awards recognise excellence among the organisation’s 1,850 members who employ over 300,000 staff across Ireland. The awards are based on succeeding across ten pillars of excellence, including design, environment, product range and customer service as set out by UK retail insights company Echo Chamber. Each store’s financial performance is also judged by auditor Grant Thornton.
Shannon Airport Head of Commercial Darren Smyth said: “Shannon is an iconic duty free store and since independence in 2013 we have focused on redeveloping our store over four phases, three of which are complete. Our first step was to collaborate with [supply partner] Heinemann, without whom we would not have achieved this success. Their expertise and advise has been a critical component of moving our business forward and I look forward to a continued partnership with them in the future.
“Our location on the Wild Atlantic way, Ireland’s rugged west coast, provided the inspiration for our Sense of Place project which showcases the very best of quality, authentic products. We launched O’Regan’s food store in honour of our founder Brendan O’Regan, which offers a rich variety of local foods. Importantly, with our partners Heinemann we created a state-of-the-art perfumes & cosmetics department, anchored by Mac and Jo Malone.
“The awards acknowledge our ambition to reset standards and provide a platform for our final phase of redevelopment, which will take place in the near future.”
The redesign of the Shannon Duty Free store includes many features influenced by the west of Ireland. The Irish design store has a living moss wall, art instillations which evoke the cloudy Irish sky and a floor to ceiling display of stone representing west Clare’s attraction, The Burren – and its unique limestone landscape.
Shannon Airport Managing Director Andrew Murphy said: “The success of Shannon Duty Free comes after an overall €40 million investment programme at Shannon Airport on a range of customer-focused projects. The awards reflect the commercial success of the changes we have made in our duty free store and the ambition of the commercial team. In partnership with Heinemann, we have created a superior customer experience and a duty free shop that honours our heritage and reflects our location.”
*For the story of Shannon Airport’s place in industry history, view our 2007 book The World Rovers, which traced the influence of the Irish on duty free since 1947.
