Our daily feature celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns from the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
Today’s image comes to you not from Japan – as one might assume – but from the heart of Singapore’s central business district, where Shiseido Travel Retail has opened a brand new office hub.
The expansive space, spanning 5,476sq m over four storeys, houses the organisation’s global headquarters, as well as Shiseido Asia Pacific’s regional headquarters and Shiseido Singapore’s affiliate office. It also includes three new dedicated facilities to boost brand-building, develop talent, drive beauty innovation, and positively impact society: Asia Pacific Innovation Centre, Asia Learning Centre and Life Quality Beauty Centre.
To mark the grand opening*, Shiseido today hosted a press conference and media tour of the new set-up. In lieu of the usual ribbon-cutting ceremony, Shiseido Travel Retail President & CEO Philippe Lesné and Shiseido Asia Pacific President & CEO Jean-Philippe Charrier donned kimono-style jackets and performed the Japanese traditional ceremony known as Kagami Biraki, which involves the breaking of a sake barrel with wooden mallets.
The practice harks back 300 years to Japan’s Edo period, when the fourth Tokugawa shōgun broke open a barrel of sake on the eve of a war, which the shogunate later won. The victory birthed a tradition celebrating new beginnings and major transitions to new stages of life.
It’s a symbolic and fitting way to mark the occasion as Shiseido Travel Retail gears up for the next stage of growth in its Vision 2020 corporate strategy.
“As we continue our trajectory towards achieving our Vision 2020 goals, this new modern office for Shiseido Travel Retail aims to be a place of innovation, creativity and collaboration for our global and Asia teams,” Shiseido Travel Retail President & CEO Philippe Lesné said in a statement.
“We hope that this office will be a place to inspire our team and partners in new ways of thinking, continuing our journey in finding new and fresh methods of engaging our hyper-connected travellers and pioneering new forms of retail entertainment,” he concluded.
*Footnote: Look out for more details and an interview with Shiseido Travel Retail President & CEO Philippe Lesné on the new office – head to our Instagram page for our on-location coverage under the Story Highlight ‘Shiseido Hub’.
