In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices: Sarah Branquinho, Duty Free World Council : 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

“Life seems very precarious at the moment,” says Sarah Branquinho. “But I know this industry will bounce back and it will bounce back well. We just need to wait for that to happen.”

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

Today’s episode features Sarah Branquinho, President of the Duty Free World Council, whose role both during and after this crisis has become more important than ever in trying to ensure that the travel retail sector receives appropriate recognition of the critical role it plays in funding airport infrastructure – and thus, of course, keeping the cost of travel down.

Sarah is also External Affairs Advisor for travel retail powerhouse Dufry, our industry’s only truly global retailer, now battling with a truly global pandemic. Sarah is married to another fine servant of our industry – long-time TFWA President Erik Juul-Mortensen, with whom she lives just outside London. Martin Moodie caught up with her on Good Friday to see how she and Erik were doing.

It’s a compelling Podcast, one of our best yet, a sombre yet ultimately uplifting blend of the personal and the professional. In it, Sarah’s humanity shines through as strongly as her sense of mission. Listen in particular, if you will, to her powerful closing words.

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Previously on In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices

April 10: Sinead el Sibai, Dubai Duty Free

April 7: Jonathan Holland of Jonathan Holland & Associates, Singapore.

April 7: Rob Wigington, Executive Director at the Airport Restaurant & Retail Association, US.

April 7: José Luis Donagaray and Inés Sisto Patron, ASUTIL

April 5: Stewart Dryburgh, Nestlé International Travel Retail,

April 4: Pier Giuseppe Torresani, Masi; and Steve Corrigan, long-time duty free drinks executive

April 2: Founder of Duty Free Global, Barry Geoghegan

April 1: Vice President of Miami-based Essence Corp, Patricia Bona.

29 March: William Grant & Sons President Asia Pacific Doug Bagley

29 March: PMA Canada National Director – Duty Free Jeff Orson