“Crisis offers a good opportunity to recognise the outstanding partnerships that have been built throughout the year,” says Parfums Christian Dior Senior Vice President Travel Retail Olivier Dubos, who reflects in this exclusive commentary on the maison’s long-standing relationship with China Duty Free Group (CDFG).
Dubos notes that in tough times, ‘friendship and trust take a new meaning.’ Faced with the challenge of overcoming the biggest crisis in industry history posed by the COVID-19 outbreak, Dior has had to rethink its entire travel retail business and adapt to a landscape where nothing is a given and few of the old metrics hold true.
In the midst of a crisis of this magnitude, Dubos highlights how CDFG and President Charles Chen have led the way in terms of recovery; and how a relationship based on strong pillars of friendship and trust are offering increasingly bright light at the end of the long and dark COVID-19 tunnel.
Its a relationship that Charles Chen also rates highly. “We are really happy to have the exciting strategic partnership with Dior,” he tells The Moodie Davitt Report. “China still has great opportunities with huge potential, even during the current difficult time. CDFG is the most reliable partner for all brands.”
Crisis as both danger and opportunity
In Chinese, the word crisis is symbolised by both “danger” and “opportunity”, writes Olivier Dubos.
When we faced a complete halt of our business, our very first thought was to take care of our front liners and staff during an exceptional moment of personal distress and uncertainty. I am particularly proud of Parfums Christian Dior and the LVMH Group for having shown — at a very early stage — so much social responsibility and solidarity; putting people and safety first and contributing positively to the world.
The impacts of the crisis were unprecedented. I have gone through many in travel retail, including the SARS outbreak and the financial crisis, but nothing of this magnitude. Travel retail has always shown a lot of resilience through tough times, and is often the region cushioning the turmoil of another. However this time, the crisis was a global one.
In just a few weeks, we had to re-map the whole year both financially and also in terms of the activation of our entire trade plan. We had to eliminate quite a lot of animations and events, as airports were slowly shutting down one by one.
China at heart
CDFG — under the leadership of its President Charles Chen — has become a very important partner for Parfums Christian Dior. I remember when we first met and learned of the ambition that Charles shared about CDFG and his impressive vision about the future of the Chinese travel retail industry. He had everything from distribution models, click and collect, ecommerce, digital communication, drive to store, and omni-channel strategies; and underlining all of that was an amazing understanding of the Chinese traveller. In tough times, similar to the one we are going through now, long built partnerships, friendships and trust take a new meaning.
Through the years — and with a very strong support from our previous Parfums Christian Dior President Claude Martinez — we built a very strong partnership with CDFG. This partnership was aimed at supporting their initiatives in China and overseas, and grew even more relevant with the regular launches of Dior’s exclusive offerings, Instagrammable experiences/mega events, and omnichannel projects.
In reality, and as Charles had already mentioned in the past, China is the world leader in travel retail. This is especially true if you remove the significant daigou activity from other countries. In China, the rapid development of CDFG’s operational capabilities represents an exceptional opportunity for any brand now and in the future.
Hainan leads travel retail out of crisis
Today, CDFG’s offshore duty free business in Hainan is the first to see a resurgence. What a relief and a pleasure it was for all of us to see Hainan reopening in April and to see the CDF Mall in Haitang Bay filling up with shoppers in a safe environment. The CDF Mall has always been the most impressive travel retail mall in the world, and we are very proud to be a part of it.
Agility and readiness are key during difficult trading periods. Despite the circumstances, the CDF Mall’s April results were very encouraging and even experienced double-digit growth versus last year. The entire travel retail industry is grateful to Charles and his team, who have worked tirelessly to reopen the CDF Mall in a safe way, to restart the business in such a short time.
We are glad to support CDFG’s local initiatives, accelerating the business both online and offline, while simultaneously giving Parfums Christian Dior some fantastic exposure.
A new journey with Dior Skincare and Capture Totale
All this is very compatible with our domestic market business in China where we are joining forces to build excitement and desirability around our best-sellers.
CDFG understands brands, and supports their global development. Their reach goes way beyond travel retail. This is especially true for Dior Skincare, which is currently gaining a lot of traction for our Capture Totale Super Potent Serum.
The serum’s price has been recently repositioned, giving all of our clients broader access to a truly amazing product. Dior Capture Totale combines 30 years of stem cell research with a unique floral complex chosen for its regenerative power.
Thanks to CDFG’s ongoing support, our maison has become known as a leader in both the fragrance and make-up categories, particularly for the Rouge Dior line.
We are now building a very strong pillar around skincare & Capture Totale and entering the skincare battle with all our strength, technology and customer experience knowledge.
Footnote: Look out in coming weeks for a special Moodie Davitt Spotlight Series eZine dedicated to Dior’s resurgent business in China and its partnership with CDFG.
Dior’s ‘greatest discovery’ – the amazing story of Capture Totale C.E.L.L. Energy  In a landmark edition of The Moodie Davitt Spotlight Series eZine published in January, we told the story of how the new Capture Totale C.E.L.L. Energy launch embodied all the values of Dior skincare, while taking the science behind it to a new level. As the eZine story relates, Dior used artificial intelligence to go beyond visible signs. It was thus able to measure what, up until now, was considered immeasurable – the key to our perception of age: the face’s visible health and vitality. The result is what Dior calls a “major discovery about stem cells”, one “so incredible” that it has driven the creation of a new range focused on the restoration of cellular energy to reactivate the skin’s vital functions and youthful beauty. |
