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A new retail brand is born as World Duty Free Group brings location-specific branding to Barcelona El Prat Airport |
SPAIN. World Duty Free Group (WDFG) today officially opened its renovated and expanded stores at Barcelona El Prat Airport, the latest stage in the overhaul of its Spanish network following its mega-tender success last December.
WDFG’s commercial space at the airport – under the location-specific name Barcelona Duty Free – has increased from 4,385sq m to 7,500sq m, distributed across a total of 12 stores.
An opening ceremony was held today at the main store in Terminal 1, attended by World Duty Free Group President Rafael Arias-Salgado, Spain’s Minister for Public Works Ana Pastor, AENA Aeropuertos President José Manuel Vargas and Barcelona El Prat Airport Director Sonia Corrochano.
The Moodie Report is on location in Barcelona and will bring you further photos and video from the opening ceremony soon.
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The retailer will invest a total of €15 million at Barcelona by 2020; it has spent €8 million already |
The retailer has created an additional 71 full time roles, bringing the total number of employees in the stores to 373.
Renovation work took two months, with WDFG investing €8 million in this first phase. It is investing a total of €15 million during the period from 2013 to 2020.
Speaking at the opening ceremony WDFG President Rafael Arias-Salgado said: “The development and expansion of the new retail space – Barcelona Duty Free – is a significant part of our company’s growth strategy in Spain.
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Intense press interest as World Duty Free Group hails the development at one of its key Spanish locations |
“It represents an important contribution to the development of the region, as well as our strong, long-term commitment to and investment in, one of the main Spanish airports. We have brought to these stores our most innovative commercial developments to date, as well as the “˜walk-through’ store concept which our company pioneered.
“Importantly, with the increase in commercial space, we have been able to create a significant number of new jobs – 134 in total – an extremely positive step in these challenging economic times”.
As with its other operations, WDFG has incorporated a Sense of Place into its offering in Barcelona, with the store design inspired by the architecture of Gaudí. On ceilings and floors there are decorative elements inspired by the “˜Trencadís’, which it said are characteristic of the Catalan architect.
It also incorporates other design elements that have links with the sea, to reflect Barcelona’s strong maritime associations.
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World Duty Free Group Chairman Rafael Arias-Salgado |
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AENA President José Manuel Vargas |
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Spanish Minister for Development Ana Pastor |
The retailer also stressed the importance of innovation. It has incorporated new technology into the commercial spaces to deliver a better customer experience.
In particular, it said its digital marketing programme will help to create dramatic and engaging in-store theatre for its customers, combining strong audio-visual content with product tasting and unique, interactive events.
The staff is made up of individuals representing 32 different nationalities, able to speak a total of 16 different languages. Many of the staff can speak up to four different languages and among the workforce are 20 Russian nationals, positioning Barcelona Duty Free well to deal with the high volume of passengers arriving from Russia.
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