In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices: Roger Jackson of The SEVA Group outlines top 20 travel retailer aspiration within five years : Moodie Davitt Report

There’s something that’s goin’ round, that’s shutting our borders down
It’s a bad time for our sick and our old
CNN’s nightly lullaby, tells of hundreds more that’ve died
I shut off the TV and think all alone, how long can this go on? – Jeff Orson, Pray

Welcome to In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices, our podcast series in which we speak to industry executives around the world to see how they and their businesses are coping with the COVID-19 crisis.

Today we talk to Roger Jackson, Managing Director of Dubai-based The SEVA Group IMEA and Organico Solutions, the Dubai operation of The SEVA Group, which is also the official travel retail distributor across the Middle East & Africa for the world’s leading luggage player Samsonite, including its US brand American Tourister. He has a wealth of travel retail experience, largely generated at global drinks giant Diageo, where he spent over 13 years.

Roger Jackson: “Our expectation is that within five years we will be in the top 20 travel retailers [based on The Moodie Davitt Report’s annual Top 25 ranking -Ed]. That requires some significant growth from where we are currently.” Photograph: Tim Bishop/Diageo PLC

[Click on the icon to hear Roger Jackson tell Martin Moodie about how The SEVA Group is combating crisis and setting its sights on a bold new positioning in the near future]

The SEVA Group’s story is one of the most interesting in travel retail. Founded and driven by entrepreneur Severino Pušić, the group, headquartered in The Netherlands, has built on its strong brand distribution base and excellent supplier and retailer relationships to become a truly global force.

The company also has ambitions to be in the top 20 travel retailers over the next five years, via a combination of new openings; concession gains and acquisitions. Underlining those ambitions, The SEVA Group recently signed as a Diamond Partner for the inaugural Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo.

Laughter and sweet transgression in Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina

Seva Duty Free. Remember the name, you’ll be hearing it a lot more. On Thursday I attended the Grand Opening of the company’s first duty free store, a border shop in the town of Metković on the Croatian side of the Bosnia and Herzegovina crossing. I promise you, it won’t be their last.
Click to read more from The Moodie Blog

Martin Moodie caught up with Roger this week by phone in Dubai, where he, like everyone in the emirate, is waiting eagerly for life and business to get back to normal.

Asked about the company having made such a big statement by becoming a Diamond Partner (alongside China Duty Free Group) for the inaugural Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo this October, Jackson commented: “Our expectation is that within five years we will be in the top 20 travel retailers [based on The Moodie Davitt Report’s annual Top 25 ranking -Ed]. That requires some significant growth from where we are currently.

“However we’ve got a strategy ranging from winning new business to bringing on new distribution brand partners, making acquisitions and then opening further retail stores. So we know exactly what we’re doing and the coronavirus actually could probably enhance that timeline because opportunities are appearing every day now that perhaps didn’t exist 12 weeks ago. So we’ve got to stay really agile, because the opportunities are coming up, and it’s about making sure we pick the right ones.

“But that’s our ambition, so why not act like we’re already in that position? That’s Severino’s strategy, which is to say “Let’s invest ahead because that’s the position we will be in, we believe, in less than five years.”