JAPAN. The expansion of the duty free brand boutiques at Kansai International Airport is on course for completion at the end of this month.
The newly-developed brand boutiques area will offer a roll-call of leading international brands. They include two 60sq m (North terminal) and 120sq m (South terminal) Hermès boutiques, which began trading on 26 February. Other new boutiques are Salvatore Ferragamo (North), Cartier (North) and Bvlgari (South), which opened on 22 December with 60sq m space each.
Renovation work to transform two 30sq m boutiques into one 60sq m boutique is halfway to completion. In addition, Cartier (South) and Bvlgari (North) opened for business on 14 February in enlarged boutiques. Refurbishment work for Celine (North), Montblanc and Alfred Dunhill (South) will be finished soon. These three brands will start trading from 29 March, which marks the completion of the project.
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Big ambition, big names: Salvatore Ferragamo and Cartier boutiques | |
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Hermès and Cartier typify the upscale offer now available at Kansai | |
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| The general duty free areas in the north and south terminals respectively | |
In line with these relocations, a new watch boutique will be opened on 25 March at one of airport authority Kansai International Airport Co’s directly-managed duty free shops (North) in the 30sq m space formerly occupied by the Bvlgari boutique.
Two cafés have been relocated to a new space beside the boutiques, which have been “doing better business with smaller shop space”, according to KIAC. The North café is run by Starbucks Coffee Japan and the South one by JALUX, a Japan Airlines subsidiary.
Takao Matsunami, the project planner, who is now Executive Director for International Affairs Management at Kansai International Airport Co (and formerly Director for airside business management), said he was delighted to be involved in such a historic project in the airport’s tenth anniversary year. He said the airport wanted to meet an increasing demand for higher quality stores.
He added: “Also, I must not forget to appreciate our duty free tenant operators for their outstanding understanding and co-operation shown for this project. Without these partnerships, this project could not be realised in such a good shape.”
According to Matsunami, most of the boutiques have started to make revenue gains, as expected, in line with the airport’s record-high international flight frequency – about 700 flights a week.
MORE STORIES ON KANSAI AIRPORT
Kansai opens new Bvlgari, Cartier and Salvatore Ferragamo boutiques – 23/12/04
