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“We believe this partnership could change the landscape of inflight retail. “ |
Tony Detter Managing Director ISG Group |
INTERNATIONAL. In a move that brings together two leaders in the inflight services business, Inflight Sales Group and Gate Retail Onboard have created an alliance to seek new business in the UK and other potential markets.
The two companies said that under their agreement, they will jointly tender on targeted airlines, initially in the UK, as well as cooperating together on other strategic areas.
The Moodie Report reliably understands that the newly formed partnership submitted its first joint offer in response to the International Airline Group’s recent tender for the combined British Airways and Iberia inflight retail programmes, though neither company would comment officially on their participation.
Presentations for the IAG business were held earlier this week, with Tourvest In-flight Retail Services and DutyFly Solutions (the incumbents respectively for BA and Iberia’s inflight retail concessions) also short-listed.
Further communication on the new joint ISG/Gate Retail strategies will emerge before the TFWA World Exhibition next month.
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When asked to comment, ISG Group Managing Director Tony Detter said: “We believe this partnership could change the landscape of inflight retail. Gate Retail Onboard is an incredibly experienced and solid company, an industry leader offering retail onboard programmes on airlines across all continents, with robust systems and operations in place in many strategic locations, while ISG is the clear leader in bespoke inflight duty free programmes on board legacy carriers.
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“The companies share strong core values including integrity and a passion for igniting this channel, and this partnership allows us to leverage the strengths into a true powerhouse for inflight retail, providing more flexibility to both current and potential customers.
“Caroline Ulbrich (CEO) and the Gate Retail Onboard leadership team are a fantastic group of professionals, and our initial cooperation has been nothing but positive,” added Detter.
