The House of Rémy Martin, in partnership with the Lagardère Travel Retail/AdP joint venture, has opened its first ever pop-up store at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport Terminal 2E, in zone S4.
The eye-catching 29sq m boutique stands in the main flow of passenger traffic and showcases the Rémy Martin line of Cognacs, including ultra-premium Louis XIII, until the end of February.
Crucially, with its strong appeal to Asian travellers, the opening coincides with the busy Chinese New Year period. The Moodie Davitt Report attended Wednesday’s official opening as the sole media representative.
At the heart of the store is the striking ‘Opulence Revealed’ table, which the partners describe as “a ground-breaking, multi-sensory and interactive tasting experience”. This reveals the style of the House and the flavours of two Rémy Martin Cognacs from the Cellar Master’s Selection, which are exclusive to travel retail: Cellar no. 16 and Cellar no. 28.
Consumers can nose and taste these Cognacs and also a selection of elements including flowers, fruit, nuts and spices, which are displayed on a central table. These are designed to stimulate the senses and allow travellers to identify the flavour profiles and aromas of each expression.
Speaking at the opening, Rémy Martin CEO Eric Vallat said: “It’s great to start this Year of the Rooster with a global first: a pop-up boutique in duty free at an airport. We are proud to open it with SDA, which reflects our long and lasting partnership.”
Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire (SDA) joint venture CEO Guy Bodescot said: “Over the past five years we have been trying to build a strategy around the satisfaction of the customer. That means closer cooperation with leading French brands across all categories. SDA is now raising the bar and our annual Chinese New Year celebration offers us further opportunity to showcase what we do.
“Rémy Martin, as well as being a long-time partner, has been a close commercial supporter in reaching our new customers from Asia and North America. With the tastes, smells and experiences presented here, Rémy Martin is at the centre of our Chinese New Year set-up, amid the best of the French gastronomy and fashion elements. We are delighted with it and I’m sure the sales will follow.”
Lagardère Travel Retail Executive Vice President Purchasing Sabine Fagan said: “Travelling consumers have demonstrated a passion for unique and innovative brand experiences which allow them to engage directly with the suppliers of spirits that catch their eye, to taste them in a relaxed and informal setting, and to learn a little more about their heritage.
“An airport, where shoppers have a little time to dwell, is an ideal theatre in which to conduct such a performance. We are sure that the delightful Rémy Martin pop-up will be a wonderful addition to the retail area.”
The experience is brought to life through explanations by trained ambassadors of each production step. This includes the harvesting of the grapes in the Grande and Petite Champagne regions of Cognac through to distillation, maturation and blending.
In addition to the tasting experience, travellers can discover other Cognacs from the House of Rémy Martin.
Making a début appearance at a European airport is Rémy Martin Carte Blanche à Baptiste Loiseau, the first of a new collection of limited editions. Only 7,000 bottles of Carte Blanche no. 1 have been created, each one individually numbered.
Carte Blanche à Baptiste Loiseau won a Gold Award in the 2016 International Wine and Spirit Competition, and was the subject of a major on location feature from The Moodie Davitt Report last year.
Featuring alongside Rémy Martin in the Paris airport pop-up is Louis XIII Grande Champagne Cognac.
The store showcases the first instalment of the new collection of limited-edition Cognacs inspired by milestones in the history of Louis XIII. The first release, Louis XIII Time Collection: The Origin – 1874, is a tribute to the date of the creation of the line.
Speaking further about the significance of the opening, Eric Vallat said that the new values of Rémy Cointreau – ‘people, terroir and time’, as revealed in its upgraded branding last week – come to life for the first time in a retail environment.
He noted: “The value of people is represented here through the European travel retail launch of Carte Blanche à Baptiste Loiseau, which was chosen by our Cellar Master Baptiste Loiseau, who is really the soul of our brand.
“We express terroir through the ‘Opulence Revealed’ table which shows the complexity and harmony in our products, through the specially selected grapes from Fine and Petite Champagne. And we express time through Louis XIII which takes 100 years to create. We are proud to be here and trust this showcase will deliver.”
Speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report, Rémy Martin Executive Director Augustin Depardon said: “It’s important that Cognac has a significant presence in our home country airports. Many people come to France and love to buy our products in France, so that is key.
“The other point is that this is also an immersion in the Rémy Martin world. What is great is that many people who are not even Cognac drinkers can stop and discover a new approach to Cognac. It is a traffic stop point in the concourse. People can ask questions and it’s a great recruitment tool. And they can discover our full range through this attractive, accessible and sensorial store.”
Rémy Cointreau Global Travel Retail Regional Director EMEA François Van Aal said: “In the cellars of Rémy Martin we are blessed with excellent reserves of eaux-de-vie which offer our Cellar Master Baptiste Loiseau a thrilling range of blending opportunities. The pop-up at Paris CDG airport provides us with the perfect occasion to invite consumers to enjoy an intimate tasting and food pairing experience of some of the most extraordinary expressions to emerge from those cellars.”
Guy Bodescot later added: “As we straddle the European and Chinese festive seasons we are putting the focus on the best of French food and drink and seeking to attract more Chinese into our shops. Cognac is the perfect ingredient that links festive French gastronomy and the Chinese love of our products. Usually in January we feature a leading Cognac partner and Rémy Martin is one of our strong partners.
“Here in this terminal, with the walk-through configuration, we try to tell stories that make sense to the customers, and this fits the bill very well. I like the natural link between this pop-up and between the P&C store on one side and gastronomy on the other.
“It must also be not only about tasting but about education. Our travellers want not only to buy, but also a sense of how the French relate to different ingredients – and the link with food that is created here is important.”
Vallat said that the elements of “experience and emotion” are now critical to brands – and he said that travel retail helps create the right environment in which they can thrive.
“We want to emphasise our expertise and the quality of our liquid, but also the element of emotion. Rémy Martin as a brand can and should generate more emotional connections with our clients.
“Also until now we have not done so much with retail and our own stores. We ‘broke the rules of the game’ with our Louis XIII store located on a fashion and luxury floor of one of the major malls in Beijing recently. But for Rémy Martin this is a first step. Targeting sales value also means offering not only quality or authenticity but also experience. This a route to the future.”
He said: “Beyond the business, travel retail is an image driver. Travel retail will always be strategic. Our clients are worldwide travellers so duty free and airports are clearly an opportunity.”
On the broader Chinese opportunity for the brand, Vallat said: “It’s too early to say we are back on track or where we were in the past but the Chinese are coming back. We have touched the bottom. We are seeing not just entry price point sales growth but also high-end growth today.”
Comment: There’s a point of difference and a dash of daring about Rémy Martin’s pop-up at Paris CDG. The brand owner doesn’t often ‘do’ retail, either directly or with a partner, in this case the AdP/Lagardère Travel Retail SDA joint venture. To invest in a stand-alone unit therefore, even for a two-month period, speaks of a company determined to lift the treatment of its brands to a new level. Expect further such installations, temporary or even permanent, in the future.
Then there’s the drive to create an experience for the traveller. Most stores are focused around brand display and presentation. Here, the centrepiece is not the product but a table of elements from fruit to flowers that explains the make-up of the Cognac.
During our visit, this was what caught the eyes of many travellers who popped in for a nose and a taste. They were young and old, men and women and from many nationalities, not only the anticipated and much sought-after Chinese.
That approach may not result in sales on the day – though the pop-up has already sold stocks of both Carte Blanche and Louis XIII in the 12 days since opening – but it does help recruit new interest in the brand and eventually an extension of the consumer base. Plus all of this underscores again the key role that travel retail can play in engaging, exciting and surprising the traveller.
