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INTERNATIONAL. Travel retail has a new identity among its industry leaders after the former Aldeasa-WDF was officially unveiled as World Duty Free Group yesterday.
The new name for the holding company combines Autogrill’s travel retailing interests of Aldeasa and WDF, cementing the integration of those retail brands into a single global entity.
Individual fascias around the world, such as Aldeasa, World Duty free and Biza, will be retained. Work on the branding and communication of the new holding company, including a new logo, is progressing.
Aldeasa-WDF had been a temporary name for the group’s international travel retail operations while a review was conducted.
The new name was unveiled to a meeting of suppliers during the Tax Free World Exhibition in Cannes yesterday.
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World Duty Free Group believes the identity reflects both the heritage and the brand equity of the company, balanced with a common sense retention of fascias in certain locations.
COMMENT: Keep it simple. That’s clearly the philosophy behind the new identity for the former Aldeasa-WDF. The name “˜World Duty Free’ does the job well, expressing an ambitious global entity. The final flourish of “˜Group’ is the icing on the integration cake which has been baking since the £546.6 million acquisition of World Duty Free by Autogrill back in May 2008.
“The name says it all,” a senior spokesman told me yesterday. “It’s what we do.”
Sometimes rebranding is turned into a torturous, expensive and overly complex process that then requires months to bed down internally and externally. I’m sure many exotic options were considered here too. But the ultimate choice of World Duty Free Group instantly feels right.
