IRELAND. It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of William (Bill) Maloney, a father figure to the duty free industry.
A long-time Manager of Shannon Freeport Shops (Aer Rianta), Bill was a hugely popular and highly respected manager in the travel retail community. He passed peacefully at Corbally House Nursing home in Limerick on 17 November. Husband of the late Noreen, Bill was the dearly loved father of Peter, Niall and Mark.
He worked for Aer Rianta at Shannon Airport (the birthplace of duty free in 1947 under the leadership of Dr Brendan O’Regan) from 1954 until 1985. He initially carried out most jobs in the shop, from training to merchandising plus all the buying, until the operation was departmentalised in 1960 as it grew larger.
After an Aer Rianta reshuffle in 1985, Bill went on to manage the company’s banqueting functions at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, until that business – and Aer Rianta’s tour company business – were taken over by Shannon Heritage.
After his retirement he played a role in Aer Rianta International’s (ARI) opening of the Arbat Irish House in Moscow, spending most of 1991 on secondment there. He followed this with company assignments in St Petersburg, as well as consulting on behalf of ARI in places as far from home as Sri Lanka, Ghana and Fiji.
Bill, who had begun his retail career at leading Dublin department store Brown Thomas, was a mentor to many Aer Rianta managers and staff down the years. They included Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman & CEO Colm McLoughlin, who began his duty free career under him in June 1969 as Special Assistant.
“He was one of the first leaders in the duty free world. I always say that anything good I learned about duty free I learned from Bill Maloney,” McLoughlin told The Moodie Davitt Report. “He was the first in so many thing; in listing many brands, introducing watches, jewellery, perfumes, cosmetics, Waterford Crystal and fashion. He was at the start of mail-order sales; he started staff training programmes; he wrote training manuals; promoted in-house staff and spoke at some of the first duty free conferences.
“Bill also met many visitors from other airports looking for advice. He was detailed in his work and was firm and fair. He saw staff welfare as a priority and was always courteous.
“I was saddened to hear of his passing. May he rest in peace.”
In The World Rovers, a special publication by The Moodie Davitt Report that examined the Irish influence on the global development of the duty free industry, Bill recalled the early days of business at Shannon Airport.
“I went to Shannon having had a great introduction to retailing in Dublin. The Shannon shop was relatively small at the time, and we had to start more or less from scratch in areas such as staff training and product knowledge. They were quite new ideas in retail, but in which I had a good grounding through Brown Thomas.
“We introduced modern standards, and I wrote a staff training manual to help the people on the shop floor. There were no reference points, as we were the only duty free shop most people had ever seen. For our time, though, we were very innovative. And we had many visits from other airport retailers who were just starting out and wanted to see how it was done.
“You see the raffle draws for cars in Middle East duty free today. Well, Shannon Airport was selling cars to American servicemen in the 1950s. Because they could save on import duty by buying overseas, it was cheaper to buy on their way home to the US, and the cars were delivered to their doors. We also did a version of home delivery, shipping liquor all over the world, which was another first.”
In those days of the piston engine, most aircraft held just 24 or 28 passengers, and they halted in Shannon before crossing the Atlantic. “Because air travel then was the preserve of the well-off, we had a lot of film stars, sportspeople and even US Presidents travelling through and stopping off,” Bill recalled.
“The shop became a showcase for Irish brands, and also international names, which gradually came to see the benefits of duty free as a shop window,” says Maloney. “Some of them took convincing. Omega was the first Swiss watch brand that we stocked, and when I first travelled to Switzerland they were sceptical of duty free. But once they learned that we had mahogany shop fittings and would present their goods in a premium environment, they came around. And many others followed.”
A Requiem Mass will be held in Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Ennis Road, on Monday 22 November at 11.00am. Burial afterwards in St. Nicholas Cemetery, Adare. In light of the COVID situation, leaving a message on the RIP.ie condolences page rather than attending will be just as appreciated, the family said. The Requiem Mass will be live streamed here.
Comment: Bill Maloney’s memories of the early years at Shannon offer a salient reminder of the pioneering and painstaking role that he and individuals like him (many of them Aer Rianta colleagues) played in shaping what we now take for granted as a sophisticated global industry, writes Martin Moodie.
Bill was held in great affection by those he worked with and mentored and until recently he was an ever-present guest at the annual Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh, a mark of the esteem in which Colm McLoughlin held him. A good and kind man, who gave so much to our industry and so graciously to others, he will be sadly missed.
The Moodie Davitt Report expresses our deepest condolences and sorrow to his family.
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