In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices: Robbie Gill, The Design Solution : 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 features Robbie Gill, Founder and Managing Director of The Design Solution, probably the best-known design company in the aviation and travel retail sectors. And Robbie is arguably the industry’s most travelled man.

Robbie founded the company in 1984 and for the last 20 or so years of the intervening period he has specialised in the airport and travel retail world. He’s worked on over 50 airports worldwide with particular emphasis on the planning and design of the commercial areas.

In addition The Design Solution has been responsible for numerous ambitious international projects for some of the world’s leading travel retailers. His aim, he says is to work on an airport that starts with every letter of the alphabet.

Martin Moodie caught up with Robbie last week at his home overlooking the majestic Thames river in Chiswick West London, which he shares with his wife – another well-known and hugely respected industry identity, Susan Whelan. Susan wears not one but two leadership hats, Senior Executive Vice President one of the world’s leading travel retailers, King Power International of Thailand and also of course CEO of Leicester City Football Club, the mighty foxes who shocked the world by winning the 2015–16 Premier League, described by many sporting pundits as the greatest sporting shock ever.

“We shut down the office nearly five weeks ago,” says Robbie. “It was a decision we took before the government made their [lockdown] decision. So we are all based from home. We’ve set up daily meetings with a variety of different structures and we’re probably communicating better than we ever had, strangely enough.

“It’s a little bit harder because it’s a different business when you’re jumping between people’s desks, on multiple projects, and having to really talk on a project by project basis through skypes and zooms and goodness knows what else, but it’s working. We have not furloughed any staff, which is remarkable.

Robbie Gill, Susan Whelan and Martin Moodie at the King Power Stadium, home to the mighty Foxes

“There was a time in the very early days where we didn’t really know what was going to happen. A number of airport projects in this terrible world we felt might be put on hold. We work with a number of major duty free operators and we were worried that these projects might grind to a halt. But over the first ten days after we locked ourselves down we had very, very little negative impact.

“We picked up two major projects while this has been going on, which in itself is remarkable. We have kept very, very busy and while it is harder working from home than it is in the office as a community, the community in the office has been preserved to the extent that at 4.30 every Friday, we have Happy Hour. So we’re very lucky and have been relatively unaffected by it. We’re just working hard to deliver to our clients the best that we possibly can.”

Footnote: As revealed by The Moodie Davitt Report, The Design Solution has been appointed by Beijing Capital International Airport to redevelop the commercial planning and design of the international departure lounge in Terminal 3 of the capital city’s main gateway.

Robbie Gill says: “The airport wants to take the opportunity of the reduced traffic passing through the airside space – due to the migration of passengers to Daxing – to transform the terminal experience ready for further growth in the future. We will be creating a new powerful vision and transform the space to maintain BCIA’s pioneering position among the world’s leading airport experiences.”

Click on the icon to listen to Robbie Gill tell Martin Moodie about the Beijing Capital International Airport project

Previously on In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices

May 2: Michael Ripfl, Umdasch, The Store Makers.

April 29: Heidi van Roon, Spark Business Services Group

April 25: Rüdiger Behn, Waldemar Behn

April 23: James Prescott, Harding Retail

April 22: Eugene Barry, Dubai Airports

April 21: Lal Arakulath, Kreol Group

April 21: Scott Collier, Toronto Pearson International Airport

April 20: Lisa Bauer, Starboard Cruise Services

April 17: Dan Cappell, Ontario International Airport

April 13: Gautom Menon, Wild Tiger Beverages