It is with heavy heart that we report the passing of John Gentzbourger, at 79 years of age, an outstanding and pioneering contributor to the duty free and travel retail industry over the past 57 years.
John, born in 1938 in Strasbourg, France, passed away in Monaco on 11 January after a short illness. He had remained highly active in the travel retail and drinks sectors in recent years through his family’s ownership of Chabot Armagnac and as Chairman of MG Cellars – the Hong Kong family firm of his late son Marc (who passed in late 2015) and Marc’s wife Kathleen. Before that he was closely involved with DFS Group, Camus Cognac and Chabot over many years.
Earlier life – and introduction to DFS
When war with Germany broke out in 1939, John’s parents moved to western France, where his French father, later killed in military service, bought a vineyard. After the war, mother and son relocated to Menton on the French-Italian border, and then to Monte Carlo in Monaco, the principality that was to shape John’s professional life. He was drafted into the French military in 1958 and served 30 months during the Algerian War of Independence. He returned to Monte Carlo in late 1960 to live with his English mother (hence the anglicised spelling of his first name), Enid.
John entered the duty free world in 1961, when a chance meeting in the streets of Monaco while working as a truck driver led him to working with DFS Group founders Robert (Bob) Miller and Charles (Chuck) Feeney, for their Tourists International and Cars International businesses – the forerunners of the duty free empire that also took root that same year.
John, viewed as the company’s local minder or gérant, played a key role in driving DFS’s most pivotal brand relationship of the pre-LVMH 1961-1996 era. In 1963 he sourced a then little-known Cognac brand called Camus for the company’s tourist shops in Paris and Rome, as the major houses’ selling prices to the tiny retailer were deemed too expensive. As the initially modest DFS business at Hong Kong and Honolulu airports began to flourish after the liberalisation of Japanese travel in 1964, Camus came to the fore again, offering attractive prices and extended credit terms to the fledgling duty free retailer.
The close bonds between the two companies subsequently led to the DFS owners creating a worldwide distribution business called Camus Overseas Limited, which John Gentzbourger ran from 1972 until 1985. He returned to the role from 1992, when his successor Norberto Herrero left, until 1996, when three of the DFS partners, Feeney, Alan Parker and Anthony Pilaro sold their interests in the retailer and exited the Cognac business.
As the Japanese business boomed in the 1960s, John also sourced DFS an Armagnac, discovering an obscure and no longer produced brand called Chabot, which had no stocks, vineyards, or distillery. Within years it was selling over 50,000 cases, almost all of it through DFS stores. Today, still in the hands of the Gentzbourger family and part of the MG Cellars portfolio, Chabot remains the world’s best-selling Armagnac. Friends in the trade would refer to John as “Monsieur Armagnac”.
John is survived by his wife Irène, daughter Ariel (DFS Group Executive Vice President Merchandising) and daughter-in-law Kathleen, plus his four beloved grandchildren.
DFS Co-Founder (and still 38.75% shareholder) Robert Miller paid warm tribute to his long-time friend and associate: “Besides the successful business that John developed with Camus and Chabot over the years, his family and mine became lasting friends. John in those early days was a true pioneer, nurturing Camus and Chabot so they could successfully enter the emerging duty free markets of Japan and Southeast Asia,” he said. “He then went on as the markets developed and set up a marketing and distribution plan for Chabot.
“He was a wonderful friend, warm with an engaging personality. I will truly miss him and send my deepest condolences to his family.”
Martin Moodie writes: John was a larger-than-life figure in our industry over several decades, popular and respected in equal measure. One of the most kind-hearted, generous figures you could hope to meet, he was a bon vivant, a man who loved the drinks and duty free industry and who was comfortable in the company of all. He was hugely respected and admired by the long-term DFS partners, and had friends in the trade all over the world thanks to his globe-trotting exploits with DFS, Camus Overseas and the Chabot Armagnac business he loved and led.
He was so successful with Camus, and so synonymous with it, that it was widely thought he was the owner, hence the sobriquet Jean Gentzbourger Camus, by which he became known all around the world. Click to read more from The Moodie Blog |
This warm, wonderful character, a great family man, will be mourned by many people around the globe. We join with the industry in sending our deepest condolences to the Gentzbourger family.
Footnote: John’s life will be celebrated in a family-only farewell on 19 January in Cannes at Crematorium de Cannes, Chemin de la Plaine de Laval 06150, Cannes, France. Flowers (white) are welcome or a plant.
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