Lagardère Travel Retail spells out qualitative ambitions in Hainan

CHINA. Lagardère Travel Retail CEO North Asia Eudes Fabre has underlined his company’s high ambitions for the Hainan offshore duty free market. As reported, the French travel retailer has partnered there with Hailvtou Sanya Downtown, controlled by Hainan Tourism Investment Duty Free Co Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hainan Tourism Investment Development Co Ltd).

“We’ve teamed up with Hainan Tourism Investment to open the second large-scale downtown duty free shop in Sanya,” Fabre said, speaking during the TFWA China Reborn virtual conference today.

“It’s definitely an ambitious project, both in terms of scale, and timing. So we will be opening this month. We have had tremendous feedback and support from all brand partners to pull this project off and an accelerated timeline.”

Fabre joined China Duty Free Group President Charles Chen (who spoke earlier, report coming soon) in saying that the Hainan cake is large and growing and that there is room for healthy competition. “I think there’s room to expand and to create more value for everybody.

“A key point, though, is that the growth is phenomenal… so it’s also really important that we be responsible stakeholders in this process, and that we work together to make it sustainable, not only by chasing sales volumes, but also by focusing on the quality of the customer experience and building the brand image.

“Ultimately, we need to be generating incremental sales and bringing new customers to brands rather than only cannibalising other channels.”

Investment in Japan

Fabre also updated the audience on the company’s progress in Japan. “I’m happy to report that in spite of everything [with the pandemic], we’ve launched in Japan this year, starting in Tokyo and Fukuoka, and most recently in Osaka Kansai Airport, together with our partners Asahi Airport Services.

“We see strong potential in Japan – it will definitely be one of the first markets to recover for travel and tourism. It offers a great opportunity for the rebirth and the renewal of the duty free business, whether it be through growth of traffic, or upgrade of the infrastructure. So it’s a market that’s full of promise, and that we continue to invest in.”