FRANCE/INTERNATIONAL. Lagardère Services (LS) has announced significant changes to its operational structure and senior management, including the integration of its European travel retail interests into a single entity, LS Travel Retail EMEA. This company, along with regional counterparts LS Travel Retail ASPAC and LS Travel Retail North America – formerly HDS Retail North America – together form the group’s new dedicated division, LS Travel Retail.
Effective immediately, LS’ travel retail activities in France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria and the UK – including duty free, press, gifts, convenience and speciality retail – have been integrated within LS Travel Retail EMEA, headed by Vincent Romet. Romet reports to LS President & COO Dag Inge Rasmussen and has joined the group’s Executive Committee.
Romet rejoins LS after two years at SSP, where he was Managing Director for France and Belgium, and a spell as CEO of PointP Travaux Publics. Before joining SSP in 2007, Romet spent ten years at LS, first as Director of the Airports network at Relay France, then as Sales Director at Relay before his nomination as Deputy Director for LS Central and Northern Europe.
Meanwhile Aelia Chairman & CEO Jean-Baptiste Morin is to leave the travel retail business to become Chairman & CEO of LS’ revamped distribution division, LS Distribution. The new division comprises the group’s six distributors in Europe (in Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Hungary) and in North America (the US and Canada), and Morin will be tasked with developing the business beyond its previous focus on press distribution. The new entity today generates sales of nearly €2 billion.
As part of his new role Morin has been named a member of LS’ Executive Committee.
 |
Aelia, whose key functions will be to manage buying and marketing within LS Travel Retail EMEA, will be headed by Ambroise Fondeur as CEO. Aelia will continue to supply and advise the group’s European travel retail business and also coordinate with its sister companies in other regions.
In LS’ home market of France, the group’s press, convenience, duty free and luxury goods retail activities have been integrated under a single entity, LS Travel Retail France, whose general management has been entrusted to former head of Aelia, Michel Perol.
Elsewhere, LS Travel Retail ASPAC will continue to be headed by Emmanuel de Place and is responsible for all the group’s travel retail activities in Asia (currently Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan) and in the Pacific (Australia and New Caledonia).
Gerry Savaria will continue to head the group’s North American travel retail business, as President and CEO of the renamed LS Travel Retail North America.
 |
After the announcement, The Moodie Report spoke to Lagardère Services President and COO Dag Rasmussen about the new structure.
The Moodie Report: What’s the thinking behind the new structure and what strengths does it bring to your business?
Dag Rasmussen: It’s consistent with the strategy we outlined previously, with dedicated units that have real regional focus and dedicated management, plus an organisation that puts the expertise and strengths of Aelia at the centre of everything that is happening around our duty free development. That development has a focus on the best supply, the best marketing, the best promotions and also on excellence in operations and a consistent interface with landlords.
 |
“We are looking for more consistency, with the name we will use across the industry, plus we will aim to leverage our purchasing power.“ |
Dag Rasmussen President & COO Lagardère Services |
Can you outline what Aelia’s role will be now? Does it extend beyond buying?
Aelia will be the new buying organisation, but it will be much more than that. Aelia will be the new B2C brand that we will use on our stores where it makes sense. There are other elements too, like back office or IT, which is not the same as we use for news and gifts or food. So we will have a total set of expertise housed within Aelia. Aelia will be part of LS Travel Retail and we want to improve on the expertise that we have, and also aid our operational companies in growing, in gaining new contracts, and also at times of acquisition we also rely on Aelia’s expertise in many areas of the business.
Aelia, when it was created, became very successful at managing the process from the supplier to the store, and in helping the group to grow particularly in Paris. But the company was not really organised for growth beyond that base, and that has been the focus for Jean-Baptiste Morin and Ambroise Fondeur in recent years. They have organised the company to bring service to many different companies and countries. Now it will help take our growth to a new level.
Will suppliers see any difference to how the business of procurement is managed via Aelia?
The buying will be mainly done through Aelia, though in Asia the organisation is somewhat different so we have local teams that interact with Aelia, which is the lead buyer. We want at all times to fulfill our global vision but local teams will take responsibility where the market dictates or where it makes sense. But using Aelia we plan to benefit from our global strengths.
 |
Dag Inge Rasmussen outlined the LS Travel Retail vision in the latest issue of The Moodie Report Digital Print Edition |
By combining duty free, news & gifts, speciality retail and press into LS Travel Retail, you are bringing together parts of the business that evolved and grew at different speeds and in different ways.
Yes, and there are challenges, but we will continue with our very decentralised approach, because that is a big factor in our success. We have empowered management locally who are in charge of the business, and who manage relationships with airports, consumers and local brands. But we are looking for more consistency, with the name we will use across the industry, plus we will aim to leverage our purchasing power more.
The new LS Travel Retail EMEA division now encompasses many operations across Europe, but not all, including Belgium, Switzerland or Spain. How will these countries function in a retail sense, and will you be as aggressive in chasing contracts here?
Let’s start with the new role that Jean-Baptiste Morin will assume, as CEO of LS Distribution. For me this was almost the only possible choice: he has been with us for 20 years, has run both retail and distribution around the world, and has a thorough knowledge of our business. He will take six companies and run them as a single group, and in these countries there are retail companies as well.
So Jean-Baptiste will have oversight here, and there will be a functional link to give the possibility of developing further travel retail operations. These countries include Belgium, Switzerland, Hungary and Spain, which has obviously become an important travel retail market for us. There will be a strong link and through the management of Jean-Baptiste, the opportunity to identify and pursue retailing opportunities.
The reason we organised it like this was to create the opportunity for these distribution companies to diversify further. These companies are very press-oriented, and that is a market that is shrinking – simply through structural decline. We have to see how we can diversify and that means a closer cooperation between distribution and retail.
And is there a challenge in making sure those traditional press-driven companies build their expertise in areas such as duty free to aid your overall growth?
Yes, although that will be helped by the creation of Aelia as a global service centre, and also by the fact that Jean-Baptiste will be heading it. And we are talking here not only about diversifying into duty free but also other areas such as food.
Does the new structure, and the creation of LS Travel Retail North America – formerly HDS Retail North America – also signal an ambition to grow further into North American duty free?
The duty free market in North America is smaller than other regions so our duty free strategy has not been as targeted. But we are working on this and duty free could be a growth option here. But we haven’t fixed that strategy fully yet.
How will this new structure serve your growth ambitions in the next two to three years?
We understand where we want to go and our teams are very focused on delivering on our strategic goals. So this structure will be an asset to achieving that, plus we have the right people now where we want them, and both regional and corporate functions that support this growth.
ABOUT LAGARDERE SERVICES
Present in 20 countries in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, with sales of €4.6 billion in 2010, Lagardère Services is one of the world’s leading press distribution and travel retail operators. As a distributor, the company offers a range of solutions to publishers and supplies retail products and services to a series of convenience networks. With a presence 120 airports and 700 stations, Lagardère Services has a portfolio of nearly 2,000 outlets in travel retail.
ABOUT LS SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Jean-Baptiste Morin joined Lagardère Services in 1990. A graduate of the HEC business school in Paris, he came to the LS Head Office as International Financial Controller following a year spent in Canada. In 1994, he moved to Austria to head up the Vienna office before returning to France in 1997 to oversee development of a number of Central European subsidiaries. In 2000, he took over the reins of the Hungarian press-distribution and retail firm Lapker, based in Budapest. In 2004, he was assigned to Toronto, Canada, as CEO of HDS Retail North America, the group’s North American retail subsidiary. He returned to Paris in 2007 as Chairman & CEO of Aelia. Morin has now been appointed Chairman & CEO of LS Distribution and becomes a member of the Executive Committee of Lagardère Services.
French-Canadian citizen and ESCP graduate Emmanuel de Place joined Lagardère Services in 1996. Starting out as Sales & Marketing Director for LMPI, the group’s Canadian press-distribution subsidiary, he took up a position as Managing Director of Lagardère Services’ Romanian retail branch HDS Inmedio in 2002. In September 2007, he moved to the group’s head office in Paris to oversee a number of companies in Central Europe. A member of the Executive Committee of the Group, he is currently COO of LS Travel Retail ASPAC, based in Singapore.
HEC graduate Vincent Romet worked as Sales Manager and Export Director for major international companies including Solvay and CFAO from 1989 to 1997, when he joined Relay France as Director of the Airports network before becoming Sales Director in 2000. In 2005 he became Deputy Director for LS Central and Northern Europe. In 2007 he joined SSP as Managing Director for France and Belgium, then became CEO of PointP Travaux Publics in 2009. He now returns to Lagardère Services as COO of LS Travel Retail EMEA and a member of the Executive Committee of the Group.
Michel Perol has been with Lagardère Services since 1984, when he began his career as Financial Controller. An HEC graduate, in 1987 he joined Relay France to head up the network of airport outlets, taking on similar responsibilities for Paris stations from 1989 to 1995. Following experience outside of the group overseeing key accounts for Matracom, he returned to Relay France as Sales Director in 1998. In August 2000, the group appointed him Chairman and CEO of Aelia. In 2007, he became CEO of Relay France. Perol is now CEO of LS Travel Retail France.
Another HEC graduate, Ambroise Fondeur joined Lagardère Services in 1993. After having held several positions as Financial and Business Controller in the USA, Canada and France, he was appointed CFO of Eastern Lobby Shops – the US retail company of the Group – in 1998. In 2000, he became Deputy Manager of Aelia, in charge of Business Development. In 2007, he was entrusted with the position of Executive Vice President – International Diversification of the Lagardère Services group. In 2009 he was appointed Deputy CEO Commercial and Marketing, before being named CEO of Aelia in 2011.
Gerry Savaria joined the Lagardère Services group in 1990 and became sales Director for LMPI, the magazine importer and distributor based in Montreal. In 1998, he joined retail sister company HDS Retail North America as Vice President, Marketing Press, then was promoted to the position of Executive Vice President, Business Development. In 2007 Savaria was appointed President & CEO of the company.
