NEW ZEALAND. Heinemann Asia Pacific is set to make its debut in the New Zealand market with three new retail concepts at Auckland Airport featuring luxury timepieces and jewellery, and luxury and premium fashion.
The exclusive multi-brand concepts at the country’s leading gateway will open from the second quarter of this year.
The boutiques will offer high-profile luxury and premium brands, with an emphasis on exclusivity, exquisite craftsmanship and rich heritage, Heinemann Asia Pacific said.
Heinemann’s fashion concept will include brands such as Givenchy, making its Oceania duty-free debut, Kenzo and Stella McCartney.
The market entry has additional relevance given the anticipated release of the Auckland Airport duty-free tender in coming months. As reported, the airport company transitioned in 2023 from its former dual-retailer model to a single operator (Lagardère AWPL trading as Aelia Duty Free) across departures and arrivals stores. The Aelia Duty Free contract expires in mid-2025.
“We are extremely proud to be entering New Zealand for the first time, and to be kicking off our partnership with Auckland Airport,” commented Heinemann Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer Marvin von Plato.
“We are excited to showcase the best of what Heinemann has to offer in the wider Oceania region, leveraging our operational experience and expertise accumulated over more than a decade in Australia.”
“We are thrilled to be Heinemann’s first airport partner in New Zealand, and to bring exclusive new luxury and premium concepts to Auckland Airport,” said Auckland Airport Chief Commercial Officer Mark Thomson.
“Heinemann’s new fashion, accessories, watches and jewellery offers further extend the current experience and these new additions help deliver a compelling shopping proposition that we hope will delight our travellers.”
The retailer said New Zealanders are already a significant customer demographic for its Asia Pacific business, representing the second-largest foreign nationality group within its Australian stores.
The Auckland openings are the latest addition to Heinemann’s fashion, accessories, watches and jewellery portfolio in the region. They follow the scaling up of the retailer’s Sydney Airport duty-free offer and its recent expansion into domestic terminal retailing at Sydney and Gold Coast airports with a focus on Australian fashion brands.
The company also opened a Chloé monobrand boutique at Changi Airport in 2023. ✈
The Moodie View: The Gebr. Heinemann business in Oceania – and Asia Pacific generally – has come a long way since September 2014 when Co-CEO (then Asia Pacific CEO) Max Heinemann famously described the company’s breakthrough securing of the Sydney Airport duty-free contract to me as “the cherry on the first ice cream”, writes Martin Moodie.
There have been plenty of ice creams and even more cherries since. Heinemann Asia Pacific now enjoys a strong position in Australia, anchored by its impressive duty-free operation at Sydney Airport – extended in early 2020 for eight years until 31 December 2029. That stronghold has been bolstered by the company’s domestic terminal debut in Sydney, an initiative mirrored recently at Gold Coast Airport where Heinemann also holds the duty-free concession until 2029.
Now the company has crossed the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, Aotearoa in the Māori language – The land of the long white cloud. It’s a notable move in its own right, with three retail openings planned that will no doubt enhance the airport’s shopping allure. New Zealand may be a small country compared to Australia in both land mass and population terms but Auckland Airport is one of the region’s busiest international gateways.
As implied in our main story, the upcoming market entry should also be viewed within the context of the much-anticipated Auckland Airport duty-free tender (for which details are yet to be released). Remember that before Heinemann Asia Pacific won the Sydney Airport duty-free contract, it opened two specialist retail stores – gourmet offering A Little Something and a National Geographic shop. The Auckland openings appear to mirror that approach of getting to know the airport and its consumer demographic, while being valuable businesses in their own right.
Note, too, Heinemann’s reference to its knowledge of the New Zealand travelling consumer garnered over more than a decade of operating in Australia. The company will be keen to emphasise it can replicate that expertise and success across the Tasman.
Could the cherry – or more likely a Kiwifruit – this time be placed on a Pavlova (New Zealand’s famous cake-sized, meringue-based dessert topped with whipped cream and fruit)? Heinemann will be hoping so.
About Heinemann Asia Pacific
Heinemann Asia Pacific is the regional headquarters of Gebr. Heinemann, the world’s seventh-largest travel retailer by sales in 2022 according to the annual industry benchmark rankings produced by The Moodie Davitt Report.
Heinemann Asia Pacific operates stores at Sydney Airport, Gold Coast Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 and downtown at the Lisboeta Macau.
The company also has extensive distribution partnerships with leading local duty-free retailers in the region, supplying international products to airport, cruise line, border, downtown and diplomatic shops.
