Travel retail veteran Gary Leong has launched Gulf Pacific, a company that provides comprehensive services across retail, branding, media, manpower solutions and food & beverage.
Gulf Pacific offers a wide range of tailored services, including marketing, public relations, media, social media management, event planning and live-streaming sales, specifically catered to Chinese consumers.
Leong brings over 20 years of experience to his new venture and has previously helped spearhead a number of luxury brands in both domestic and travel retail channels. One of his most significant achievements was expanding the travel retail business of a leading beauty tech wellbeing brand to over 230 points-of-sale across 26 countries in just five years.
Gulf Pacific was created to help businesses capture opportunities in travel retail, particularly in Asia Pacific. The company showcases Leong’s deep understanding of stakeholder needs and the changing landscape in the region. It also leverages his insights into how ecommerce and digitalisation are influencing consumer behaviours and how these can be used to improve conversion.
“My new journey with Gulf Pacific allows me a creative outlet to dig deeper for ways to propel the industry to greater heights,” Leong commented. “Our attentions are purely focused on delivering a full approach concept designed for full-funnel campaigns, catering to brands that wish to enter the domestic and global travel retail markets.
“Gulf Pacific will not only add value to on-the-ground activations by increasing conversion rates, but by harnessing the power of networking and selling to specific target audiences. We are excited to be at the forefront of the expansion of the industry by introducing revolutionary concepts to maximise every moment of the traveller journey – both for the individual and for the brand.”
In its early stages, Gulf Pacific has already secured an impressive client portfolio, which includes both household names and innovative start-ups. Notably, a key partnership has been established with the VMSD Group, a company with over 30 years’ experience in helping international brands enhance visibility and consumer engagement.
The VMSD Group offers end-to-end services ranging from concept design and production to logistics, project management and manpower solutions for both travel retail and domestic markets.
VMSD Group has delivered activations, pop-ups and events in over 20 airports and domestic shops across Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Dubai and Australia among others.
Gulf Pacific’s partnership with VMSD Group is already underway at Singapore Changi Airport, where the partners are assisting travel retailers with activations and staffing across 37 duty-free stores in four terminals, running 24-hour operations.
Commenting on the partnership, VMSD Group Managing Director Jacelyn Lee said: “Our partnership with Gulf Pacific is a pivotal step forward for the VMSD Group. Leveraging on decades of retail expertise, the synergies between our companies will unlock new opportunities and elevate our capabilities across the Asia-Pacific region. We are excited about the potential for growth that this partnership represents, both regionally and globally.”
Leong added: “The VMSD Group is our first partner, and a significant one at that. As we continue to innovate this sector of the industry, other categories such as media and food & beverage will also have partnerships with that same drive and synergy.
“Our first point of action with the VMSD Group will be to add value to their manpower solutions by honing their selling skills, arming them with deeper insights into their customer base. Our goal is to train capable staff that are able to actively pitch to a demographic, instead of repeating marketing pointers that do not resonate, leaving the funnel ending at awareness.” ✈
