Hanse Distribution has appointed Stuart McGuire as an advisor for strategic business development.
McGuire is currently CEO at Lovely Distribution Company, a specialist fragrance distributor with a focus on celebrity franchises. He is known in travel retail as the Founder of Scorpio Worldwide Ltd (since sold to Gebr. Heinemann).
Commenting on McGuire’s appointment, Hanse Distribution Managing Director Nikolas Hogrefe said: “We are delighted that Stuart has joined our company. We have been good friends for many years, sharing the highs and lows of travel retail and indeed of life itself.
“At Hanse we are very proud to have survived the Covid crisis, and it’s clear that there are now many opportunities to grow as we come out of the pandemic. Stuart’s experience and contacts in the industry will help us to evaluate and secure these opportunities.”
Hogrefe added, “I believe strongly in the travel retail business and have already heavily invested in building the team, recruiting Dennis Holst and Jakob Barthe in recent months, both very experienced and respected executives. We see strong demand from airlines in the boutique and buy onboard areas, and we have increased our portfolio greatly to satisfy this demand. We are also growing our business into duty free stores and our global footprint generally.”
Hanse Distribution is a supplier for global brands in travel retail, with a particular focus on inflight retail. The company was founded in 2008 and is owned by Managing Director Nikolas Hogrefe. It currently supplies many leading companies in the sector including Condor, Lufthansa and Retail in Motion, as well as ground duty free retailers such as Lagardère Travel Retail.
McGuire added, “I am very happy to be working with Nikolas as a Strategic Advisor. As Nikolas mentioned, we have been close friends for many years. Indeed, he was one of my first clients when working at Heinemann in the 1990s. We share the same values and passion for the industry, and I am looking forward to helping Nikolas and his team secure new business in the years to come.”
