In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices: for1314| a1dil | c3hristoph | d4enz (yes, that’s the company name) : Moodie Davitt Report

There’s something that’s goin’ round, that’s shutting our borders down
It’s a bad time for our sick and our old
CNN’s nightly lullaby, tells of hundreds more that’ve died
I shut off the TV and think all alone, how long can this go on? – Jeff Orson, Pray

Welcome to In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices, our podcast series in which we speak to industry executives around the world to see how they and their businesses are coping with the COVID-19 crisis.

Today’s episode is one with a difference, featuring three men who want to make a difference. The trio have formed a consortium, notable for many things – not least its name. It’s called for1314| a1dil | c3hristoph | d4enz. Sounds like a code, doesn’t it? Well it is a code. But it’s a code that its proponents believe will unlock a better, safer and more principled future for airports, travel retailers and passengers.

[Click on the podcast icon to hear the passion, persistence and principles of Adil Raïhani, Denz van der List and Christoph Henkel.

Founding partners in a positively disruptive consortium (Left to right): Adil Raïhani, Denz van der List, and Christoph Henkel. “This is a global collaboration initiative that will restart the engines of critical global ecosystems”

For 1314 [to use the abbrevation] brings together Adil Raïhani (Chief Enabling Officer at Adil Raïhani Consulting and former Vienna Airport Senior Vice President Center Management); TR6 Owner (and former Cabeau executive) Denz van der List; and Christoph Henkel, the founder of Miami-based wholesalee distributor InnoTRI Limited (and former Heinemann Americas Purchasing Director).

By addressing what they describe as a supply chain “meltdown” in the sector, for1314 is focusing firstly on the provision at scale of high-demand, essential health and safety products for front-line workers across all sectors (stretching beyond aviation and travel retail).

When we broke the story on The Moodie Davitt Report, our traffic went through the roof. The story touched a nerve. No wonder, considering that within it Adil Raïhani said this: “We are passing on most of the margin to those in need to address the immorality we are seeing in vastly inflated market rates.”

Martin Moodie talked to the trio by Zoom this week to find out how a very different kind of start-up is progressing.