Travel retail consultancy Blueprint is marking its tenth anniversary, setting out its vision for the next two years alongside a review of progress over the past years.
Blueprint Partner Thomas Kaneko Henningsen, who founded the consultancy in 2016, said: “Ten years ago, Blueprint was founded on a simple promise: to have fun doing what we truly believe in. It means everything to us that we enjoy what we do. It must be heartfelt.”
Blueprint Partner Karl Walter added: “Today, we sit at the intersection where purpose meets experience; equal parts consultancy, advisory and think tank. This gives us a bandwidth that enables us to customise solutions to a wider range of industry stakeholders.”
As Blueprint looks to the future, it builds on a track record of advising more than 70 companies across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America, spanning airports, retailers, operators and leading global brands.
This work is driven by partners Sonja Soskic, Thomas Kaneko Henningsen and Karl Walter, supported by a team of associates.
Blueprint’s approach remains firmly future-focused, looking beyond current developments to anticipate what comes next by asking challenging questions, querying established assumptions and translating analysis into actionable insights.
Earlier this year, the consultancy launched Inconvenient Predictions, an intelligence platform designed as a think tank to examine why and how travel retail is set to evolve in the coming years.
Blueprint Partner Sonja Soskic said: “Travel retail is piloting new value propositions and taking challenges head-on. It has to pivot because the fast-changing consumer landscape is outpacing the industry and that’s why we launched Inconvenient Predictions intelligence platform.“
Blueprint contributes to industry discussions through presentations at conferences organised by industry associations, and insight features in leading trade media.
The Blueprint approach
Blueprint’s combined consultancy, advisory and think-tank expertise is proving increasingly valuable amid a fast-evolving travel retail environment, which is being shaped by Gen Z’s smartphone-first habits, AI-powered shopping, experiential retail, social commerce, conscious consumerism and geopolitics.
Soskic said: “Global consumerism is undergoing profound transformation. That’s why tomorrow’s travellers are not inviting the industry to do better; they are expecting travel retail to redefine its value proposition. Industry stakeholders must rethink the commercial models that have served them for decades in order to stay relevant.”
Future-focused transformation
Blueprint enters its second decade with a continued focus on moving travel retail beyond transactional shopping, price-led competition and incremental improvements.
Kaneko-Henningsen said: “We do not aim at becoming the biggest consultancy. We aim at staying relevant. We believe in partnerships based on mutual trust, commitment and positive energy.”
The company will complete its two-year transformation by the end of this year:
- Consultancy meets advisory: Continue supporting business partners with short-term deliverables while strengthening long-term strategic guidance through industry-level analysis, executive training and advisory board roles.
- Business development meets strategic intelligence: Continue offering insight masterclasses, go-to-market workshops and commercial leadership sparring while introducing AI-powered travel retail intelligence and strengthening Gen Z insights.
- Inconvenient Predictions meets think tank: Continue future-proofing travel retail while scaling collaborations with industry associations, thought leaders and innovators.
Kaneko-Henningsen said: “Blueprint’s coming years will be about helping travel retail stakeholders move from reacting to transformation to proactively taking the lead on what the industry can become. That’s why Blueprint continuously evolves.
“As a team we must stay hungry, unconventional and constantly better ourselves. That’s how we stay relevant.”
Aligning with this shift, Blueprint has also updated its logo, replacing the tagline ‘Business Development’ with ‘TR Intelligence’.
Walter said: “Our greatest win over the past decade has been teaming up with remarkable people from all over the world from colleagues, clients and business partners, to entrepreneurs, thought leaders and industry associations who have shared their knowledge, challenged ideas and helped us see travel retail through progressive lenses.”
Kaneko-Henningsen added: “A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been part of the Blueprint journey. From families and friends to clients and business partners, they stood by us when times were hard.
“We would not be here without the people who believe in us, open doors for us and trust us with their businesses. We are incredibly grateful.” ✈
