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Back to the future: The new Shannon Duty Free branding sits above the store entrance |
IRELAND. The Shannon Group has relaunched Shannon Duty Free, reviving the name that originally stood over the world’s first duty free shop, opened at the airport in 1947. Shannon Airport has also partnered with Gebr Heinemann as full service supplier to the business.
That move will enable a greater range of brands to be sold and Heinemann will lend its expertise in areas such as merchandising, category management and shop design. A major relaunch event (with a 1940s theme to celebrate the original shop opening) was held on Monday night at Shannon Airport, and attended by The Moodie Report.
The relaunch sees the introduction of new signage, new products and a plan to introduce more efficient layouts to the store, as Shannon Duty Free aims to establish “a more effective, exciting and profitable retail outlet”.
Shannon Group Chair Rose Hynes described Shannon Duty Free as “the greatest name in airport retailing”. She added: “Today we are celebrating the future and we are building that future on an illustrious past. Shannon was home to the world’s first duty free shop and the world’s first free zone.
“The duty free shop was the brainchild of Dr. Brendan O’Regan and opened two years after the first transatlantic flight took off from here in 1945. Even in his wildest dreams Dr O’Regan could never have imagined how this would have caught on. The shop opened as just a small kiosk, but became an immediate success and has been widely copied.
“At the time the idea of shopping at an airport was alien, but Shannon saw the merchandising opportunity. So different was the idea of selling luxury goods at airports that the then Shannon team were unable to convince some brands to supply them. But the Shannon spirit was unrelenting and eventually many of those brands were sold here.”
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Shannon Group Chair Rose Hynes: “We are celebrating the future and we are building that future on an illustrious past” |
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Shannon Group CEO Neil Pakey: “Shannon Duty Free is a name that the industry around the world looks up to and remembers fondly” |
Shannon Group CEO Neil Pakey said: “The relaunch of Shannon Duty Free won’t just be a starting point for a new era of high-quality shopping at the airport; it will be a celebration of all that has gone before. We are so proud to say we invented duty free shopping and we’re excited to celebrate this existence and what we believe is an exciting future for Shannon Duty Free.”
He hailed the international brands that support Shannon Duty Free but also the local, regional and national companies that help give it a Sense of Place – and which will become more of a focus in the future.
Pakey said: “We were looking through some old press clippings and found one that listed the top selling items here in 1947. They included Limerick lace, hand-fashioned Irish souvenirs and objects in Connemara marble – which I’m pleased to say are still popular items today.
“We believe in stocking local products and supporting local industry. That includes Waterford and Galway crystal, Connemara marble but also other local and national food companies who are here with us displaying their wares tonight. They include Butlers Irish chocolate, Burren Smokehouse salmon, Clonakilty black pudding, Cratloe Hills sheep cheese, Foods of Athenry, mead from Bunratty Castle and Dingle Distillery whiskey.
“Seeing the sign ‘Shannon Duty Free: the world’s first duty free’ above the door should make everyone proud. Adopting that brand was quite a simple decision: Shannon Duty Free is a name that the industry around the world looks up to and remembers fondly, and we’re very proud of it.”
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Historic partnership: Shannon Group CEO Neil Pakey, Gebr Heinemann Co-Owner Gunnar Heinemann and Shannon Group Chair Rose Hynes with a harpist at Bunratty Castle close to Shannon Airport after the relaunch; the 15th century castle flew the German flag in honour of the Heinemann team’s arrival |
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Dr. Brendan O’Regan: Founding father of duty free |
Gebr Heinemann Co-Owner Gunnar Heinemann said: “Gebr Heinemann is very pleased to partner and supply Shannon Duty Free over the coming years. As the oldest duty free supplier in the world we believe our partnership with Shannon Duty Free, the world’s first duty free shop, is unique and exciting. It is a very important milestone for our business and in our efforts to grow our footprint. We hope that our pioneering histories form the foundation of a great future together.”
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Shannon Group Chair Rose Hynes on a new era for Shannon Airport, and the importance of history and legacy at the original duty free location |
Heinemann later said: “What I like about this partnership is the combination of dynasties, the inventors of duty free and a family with 135 years of tradition. And they are also wonderful people to work with.”
Gebr Heinemann will assist with plans to remodel the store in coming months, and to introduce new brands such as Chanel that are not currently present at Shannon Duty Free.
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The relaunch event carried a 1940s theme |
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Rose Hynes with former Shannon Airport Director Liam Skelly (who worked with Dr. Brendan O’Regan in the original Sales & Catering Organisation) and his wife Jo |
Rose Hynes further linked the present to the past by citing a message from DFS Co-Founder Chuck Feeney shortly before the relaunch event.
She said: “Chuck Feeney, the billionaire philanthropist and friend of Dr. O Regan, has widely acknowledged that the founding of Shannon Duty Free provided the business model from which Chuck made his fortune. And we all know what Chuck Feeney’s generosity has done for this region and for this country.
“I had a message from Chuck Feeney last week [both are on the board of the University of Limerick Foundation -Ed], reminding me what a great person Dr. O’Regan was, what he had achieved and how strong their friendship was. I was delighted to tell him that Shannon Duty Free was relaunching today.”
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Leaning on a rich history: Left is a photo of US entertainer Gene Kelly visiting in the duty free shop the 1950s, right is actor Richard Harris, who hailed from nearby Limerick city, taking part in a branding campaign |
She added: “We’re very proud to be joining our pioneering history with the commercial expertise of a world leader in travel retail: Gebr Heinemann. We have a lot in common: Heinemann’s philosophy is not just to trade in duty free goods, it’s to do business with passion.
“We fully intend to recreate the spirit of innovation that typified this airport in the past, with Shannon Duty Free one of the shining examples of that. We’re pleased to have Heinemann as our partner and look forward to building a successful future together. And we’re confident that the combination of these two great duty free names will fuse into something remarkable.”
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Rose Hynes and Neil Pakey with ‘Marilyn’ at the event |
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Rose Hynes with Shannon Group Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Murphy |
She later added: “We looked hard to see who would suit us culturally and we found the best fit. Heinemann brings a passion to the business, and brings economies of scale, more brands and a diversity of products, as well as their expertise in shop layouts. From next year you’ll see changes in the store.
“We aim to set ourselves apart from the other Irish airports, and we’ll do that through the Heinemann partnership, with a different look and a different product range. We want passengers to remember their shopping experience at Shannon.
The Moodie Report’s Dermot Davitt speaks to Shannon Group CEO Neil Pakey about the Gebr Heinemann connection |
On the Heinemann partnership, Neil Pakey told us: “We held a tender for duty free supply and were very pleased with the responses. We already had very good connections with local artisan producers but we needed to have a partner that had wholesale capability on a global scale, with purchasing strength. We saw a lot of that in the tender bids, and then we met Heinemann, and what we saw was the remarkable DNA of their family business, and that was very important to us, as an airport that prides itself on its community.
“If we went by ourselves we just wouldn’t have the purchasing capacity. They bring that but also expertise in branding, marketing, how to make the shop more accessible to consumers.
“We want to breathe new life into the shop. Shannon has huge legacy value in duty free; we want to live up to that and bring it back to its past glories.”
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The store’s signage and fascia have been rebranded; next will come fresh merchandising and category layouts in partnership with Gebr Heinemann, while the focus on local gifts and artisanal items (a key feature of Shannon Duty Free for many years) will be enhanced |
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As reported, Shannon Airport split from Dublin Airport Authority on 1 January 2013 and is now part of the Shannon Group. That is an umbrella organisation for a group of four businesses focused on delivering economic benefits for the Shannon/Limerick area, the West of Ireland and the wider economy. The four entities are Shannon Airport, Shannon Heritage, the International Aviation Services Centre and Shannon Commercial Properties.
Pakey noted: “I have worked at airports all over the world and the ownership and loyalty that local people feel for Shannon Airport is unique. We’ve been blessed with support from all parts of the community, from Clare to Limerick but also Kerry, Galway, Tipperary and beyond.
“Beyond the Shannon Duty Free story we have succeeded in reversing the five-year decline in passenger numbers and are back in growth in 2014. We just announced +28% growth in October, which is pretty astounding.
“We need to consolidate now and shore up everything we have achieved. We need to ensure that all the new routes we have added are used and that we bring in new tourists to the region. But there is still growth ahead too. The US market has been very good in the last 12 months, and we hope for new capacity from there, plus to bring in more traffic in the shoulder periods.
“We have a lot of work to do, but there is a bright future ahead for the airport.”
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Shannon Airport passenger numbers have reversed a five-year decline |
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The Christmas season is already under way at Shannon Airport |
*The original Shannon Duty Free story is a key element in a special publication produced by The Moodie Report in 2007 about the Irish influence on the global duty free industry. To access ‘The World Rovers’ in PDF format chapter by chapter, click here.
