FRANCE. Groupe ADP and its partners have set out an ambitious vision for the Extime retail and hospitality concept, which was officially launched in style at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal 1 on Thursday evening.
The airports company introduced the wonderfully upgraded T1 to around 180 key business partners and media as the first full terminal to be transformed under the Extime branding. It also showcased executions that are taking shape at Terminal 2 B/D Connector and at Terminal 2G on a tour with selected media.
Watch our video highlights from the official launch as filmed by The Moodie Davitt Report Brands Director Hannah Tan-Gillies
The Moodie Davitt Report President Dermot Davitt and Brands Director Hannah Tan-Gillies visited the transformed facilities – led by T1 as part of an event hosted by ADP at the Paris gateway. [Further images, video and podcasts will follow shortly.]
Groupe ADP Chief Customer Officer Mathieu Daubert presented the thinking behind the airport company’s groundbreaking new concept.
He told The Moodie Davitt Report: “T1 is our first ‘Boutique Terminal’ and really a flagship. The idea is to create a new global venue for retail and hospitality. We hope this will be a new standard for travel retail at airports.”
Addressing guests at the launch event on Thursday, Groupe ADP Chairman & CEO Augustin de Romanet said: “We are very proud of our Extime brand. It is up to us to build on this achievement to build a magnificent collection of boutique terminals at Paris Aéroport and abroad.” [More comments below.]
The Extime concept originated as ADP sought to address the stress that many travellers experience at the airport. On the one hand, many fear missing their flights. On the other, there is an opportunity created by the moment of relaxation that occurs once they are past the check-in and security, which ADP refers to as the “out-of-time cocoon”.
The promise, Daubert said, is “to make our network of airports be the preferred destination for all travellers”. Within airside retail, this translates as developing “territories of experience and emotion” around the Extime brand.
Extime allows the passenger to spend satisfying time in these zones through the creation of a collection of ‘Boutique Terminals’, said ADP.
These come in three types: Lifestyle (targeting mainly low-cost airline travellers), Premium (for international clientele looking for luxury brands) and Exclusive (a VIP experience).
These terminals aim to match the spirit of a chain of boutique hotels, featuring retail and hospitality champions under the Extime Duty Free, Extime Food & Beverage, Extime Media and Extime Lounge brands.
The businesses under the Extime Paris umbrella are managed through a series of agreements with preferred partners: Lagardère Travel Retail (Extime Duty Free, owned 51% by ADP), JCDecaux (Extime Media, 50:50 owned), SSP (Extime Food & Beverage, 50:50 owned) and TAV Operation Services (Extime Lounge, 51% TAV).
Daubert said: “Extime is a new brand for retail and hospitality aimed at transforming global airside zones into venues or Boutique Terminals. It takes inspiration from a boutique hotel and the first thing you need at a boutique hotel is human size and scale, ensuring you don’t introduce any pain to the traveller experience. So for us that means good signage, it means taking no more than six minutes from security to the farthest boarding gate.
“Like a boutique hotel, each Boutique Terminal is quite different from one to the other but they will all share common values in design, service and product offering.”
CDG T1 sees the first of the Premium executions piloted, followed by CDG2 B/D for the Lifestyle format – to be completed later in February – with others to follow through 2023.
At CDG T1 (with around 4 million departing passengers a year), ADP developed the overall environment in partnership with French designers Maxime Liautard and Hugo Toro, with neat design cues that evoke the original T1, opened in 1974 and designed by architect Paul Andreu. These include stylised lighting, seating and other features inspired by the circular T1 shape.
The airside arena is led by 6,000sq m of commercial footprint, with over 1,300sq m of high-class beauty executions at its heart. These lie adjacent to a series of hugely impressive double fronted luxury boutiques (Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Cartier, Hermès, Gucci, Prada and others), which in turn have entrances to the shopping zone on one side and gates on the other.
A core category emporium leads on French wines & spirits and gastronomy, followed by confectionery, tobacco and electronics.
Highlights of this space include an edit of Moët Hennessy concept (originally installed in Hall K, CDG T2) Les Caves Particulières, plus prominent installations for Pierre Hermé, Maison de Chocolat, Prunier, Mariage Frères, Once upon a Wine by AdVini and others. Around 15% of the T1 offer comes from brands or products new to the location.
Extime Duty Free Paris Executive President Guy Bodescot said: “Because of the luxury profile of this terminal, in this Extime Duty Free store you find French premium food brands from macarons to cheese to delicatessen prominently placed, just as you would in a department store here in Paris. Here we have Pierre Hermé at the front, while at the other end of the terminal Ladurée is to the fore in its own space.
“And as this terminal will eventually be quite Asia-focused, Cognac also had to be at the front. The more day to day consumption products are placed toward the back.
“There are areas of Frenchness, areas for promotions and some newness too in sub-brands Choco Box and Candy Box, offering French and other speciality confectionery.”
The high average spends in T1 to date (higher, said ADP, even compared to CDG 2E, Hall K, the long-time best-performing terminal) are aided by premium area for rare and fine wines, cigars and the L‘Ultime VIP concept pioneered by ADP and partners.
Bodescot said: “If you take transactions over €10,000 in one basket, we are double-digit higher compared to 2019, if you take €5,000 to €10,000 we are at the same level as 2019, and it’s only on those transactions under €5,000 where we are about -5% down. Compared to the general trend in 2022, with the heavy pandemic impact in the first quarter, it is very good. From June to December we were roughly -7% to -13% compared to 2019. But on those high-ticket transactions we have reached a high level since May last year, at 2019 levels or higher.
F&B in CDG T1 is located on a mezzanine upstairs, with casual and grab & go offers from Paul and McDonald’s on one side of the terminal, and on the other an Asian concept and Bistro Benoit by Alain Ducasse, for travellers with more time.
Engaging environment
The retail areas offer excellent visibility throughout, with digitalisation playing a supporting though understated role.
Daubert said: “We don’t want too much digital but the right offers in the right places. That means airport TV giving information or sports events played live and so on. And not every screen is digital; in the seating lounge near gates we have gone for an under-stated look. Even within retail, in P&C many brands wanted screens but we had to say no – not every experience must be a digital one. We want the emphasis on products and services.”
Extime’s physical locations will soon be complemented by a strong digital system made up of instant rewards and the marketplace extime.com, to launch in April. This has been devised as a one-stop e-shop where products and services sold by Extime can be booked with a single customer account and shopping basket.
Quality of service is also a central focus, with the recruitment of a team of ambassadors a vital element.
“As we want to create global venues, we want to have a strong culture of operations to make sure everything is coherent across all our locations,” said Daubert.
“Excellence in service is very important. All interactions with our staff have to be ambitious and coherent wherever you are.”
That service is enhanced by the introduction of a new people function, namely the Maître de Maison. Here, a chosen host working for ADP drives excellence and maintains service standards, mirroring the drive for excellence in the product offering.
The programme features 600 ambassadors in T1 alone, backed by an ambitious induction programme. The creation of a community is further enhanced by Campus Extime, which trains and services the needs of the certified partner operators of each branch of Extime.
Price promise
One further element aimed at building trust and loyalty among consumers is the return to dual duty free and duty paid pricing at Paris airports, where previously ADP and JV partner Lagardère Travel Retail operated under a single price model.
Extime Duty Free Paris Executive President Guy Bodescot explained: “We made the decision to revert to both a duty free and duty paid price across the board that is visible to our shoppers.
“First, people already know what we sell and can order products through the e-retail platform (extime.com) that we launch in April, transparency on price is going to be obvious. As they fly internationally they expect from us a clear bargain, which is the exemption of taxes. So we cannot hide behind a single price policy. People will say, ‘well, if I fly to this destination, I should see the VAT exemption at least quite clearly compared to downtown pricing.
“Second, although we can sell at a single price and our receipts show the VAT we pay to the government, we have had Chinese customers for example who ask for the return of their VAT as they are flying say to Amsterdam but then to Shanghai, so don’t feel they should pay the VAT. When we refuse as we cannot do this with single priced items, they feel offended as if we are biased against them, which is of course not what we want.
“So we said that as we launch the Extime brand, it’s the right time to establish dual pricing. And we can offer those in our Extime Rewards club a special promotional price equivalent to the VAT exemption. We are reestablishing clear added value versus downtown and giving an advantage to our loyal customers who might have said before that they are getting nothing in return for that loyalty.”
Daubert said: “People do query why we don’t offer a duty free price advantage when they travel to non-EU destinations. I think that is a global danger for the travel retail business, if we don’t employ and promote a pricing policy. We changed many parameters, with an objective to say we will price duty free and duty paid – starting in T1 – including on beauty, which you don’t see elsewhere. We also have dual pricing on wines & Champagnes, which is also not common. The only areas where we have single price is fine food where price isn’t such a strong criteria.
“We have had a lot of discussions to find the right model, which involved a lot of work. But we have to react – we continue to hear from customers that price is a key reason not to buy, and those numbers have been rising.”
With loyalty, e-retail and the bespoke approach to each terminal should boost the stop ratios and drive people towards the stores, added Bodescot. “The majority of people still don’t go into our shops, so if we can encourage more of them to go in, we’ll build revenue. We need to find the next steps of our development. That means Extime through the e-retail, through the CRM, through the new pricing policy, alongside the human touch.”
Beyond Paris, ADP will seek further international development with priority given to group airports – around 30 worldwide. This will begin with specific pioneering locations, then deployment across the group, and later beyond group airports. Partnerships will be developed under a franchise model, said ADP.
Daubert said: “Our ambition is to create a global synergy between the operators under Extime on one hand, where we can create offers across commercial functions., But also we have the flexibility to change partnerships from location to location. The duty free or F&B partner might be different in another country but it will still be Extime, part of the ADP portfolio.
Watch our exclusive video coverage from Terminal 2B/D, shot by The Moodie Davitt Report Brands Director Hannah Tan-Gillies on location in Paris
“We will have different strategies for different parts of the business. For Extime Media we plan to have one global partner in JCDecaux. This begins in Paris but will extend to other locations such as Bodrum next year or Amman in 2024. Extime Lounge will be the hospitality partner everywhere too though TAV Operation Services. For duty free and F&B we have to decide. These partners we call our ‘certified operators’.
“Basically outside Paris we plan to operate on a franchise basis, with agreement on pricing and promotion policy but under a single Extime concept. The Paris team will lead that, with franchisees country by country.”
Extime Travel Essentials will represent a new partnership at Paris airports from 2024. Currently managed by the ADP/Lagardère partnership Relay @ADP through to the start of next year, the essentials business will be the subject of a tender to be called shortly.
Daubert said: “We will go to the market as we are creating a new story. We had JVs for a long time, now we want to ensure we explore all opportunities and a competition is the best way. In this case, unlike Extime Duty Free, we will brand the stores according to the brand of the chosen partner as that is likely to be more recognisable for travellers.”
Although car parking is not currently part of the Extime universe (parking is managed in-house by the group), ADP is considering how to introduce this channel so it align with others. Daubert noted the opportunity to embed parking into a wider Extime digital rewards programme.
Celebrating a milestone
Elaborating on the concept to guests at a special cocktail to celebrate the launch on Thursday night, Daubert said: “This has been a long time in the planning. When Augustin de Romanet spoke to us about hospitality, he asked us to imagine a hotel in which our passengers would not sleep.
“It took 3,834 days to go from the outline to the execution – in which we went up and down, from construction to deconstruction, through intensive debate and much work. Although the road was long it has been illuminated by real moments of grace that allowed us to move forward.
“I pay tribute to the month of May, a month of creative release. The success of many projects depends on a few illuminations. In the case of T1 and the Extime brand, most came in May. In May 2012 we sketched the outline. In May 2015 the concept of a boutique terminal was first adopted. In May 2016, the plan for T1 was unveiled and in May 2019, the idea of creating a brand was born. Parisian of course but international too.
“In May 2021, after reaching many dead ends, we employed the mind of a French philosopher, Francois Julien, who came up with the perfect name. Perfect as it sums up what we want to do, and it passes the customer perception tests in the many countries we have done them.
“So today, despite many headwinds, including a global health crisis, we can say that we have done it. Extime is born and Terminal 1 is its first incarnation. And we thank all of the partners, Maisons and brands for supporting us as we would not have achieved this without you.
“But the Extime journey has just begun. It’s now up to the real stars, our Maitre de Maison, to write their adventure in this beautiful venue, along with their community of 600 ambassadors, to create unforgettable experiences and emotions day after day.
“Now we take our next steps, with the opening of Terminal B/D under the Extime brand later in February, followed by the launch of our Extime Rewards loyalty programme, our Extime.com digital eco-system in April and many other projects in France and abroad to come.
Augustin de Romanet saluted Mathieu Daubert and his team for their hard work and tenacity in ensuring the Extime project came to life.
He said: “My priority at Groupe ADP has been to set hospitality at the core of everything we do, as a mindset. Hospitality in the act of welcoming a foreigner who knocks at your door and making them feel at home. It’s an action that means opening yourself to the world. It demands personality, generosity and the desire to reveal a part of your own intimacy.
He also movingly touched on the role of the airport while speaking on three core themes: home, name and place.
“First, to welcome your guests you must have a place that you can call home,” said de Romanet. “That was our first revolution, to state that an airport is a place in its own right, not just a passage from plane to city solely to serve the airlines. Obviously an airport must offer that connection from city to aircraft or between aircraft through many complex flows, and must offer seamless passage, but is that all? Our ambition is not limited to this.
“We know that our travellers on long-haul flights spend more than two hours with us and this time must not be lost. We want to offer them a hotel in which they don’t sleep, and an incredible place where they can immerse themselves after passing through the checks, before they embark.
“It should be a home in which we put our heart and energy to welcome them as if each one was a dear friend visiting our country. We call these places boutique terminals, a collection of places at human scale where troubles disappear and give way to emotions and experiences.
“Our desire is to deploy these at Paris Aéroport of course but also abroad as an international collection. Our dream is to one day have this collection of boutique hotels in Asia as we already have in Americas, with the opening of an Extime lounge in Miami at a small airport for business travellers.
“This Terminal 1 is our first jewel, and we aim to open many more.”
Romanet then welcomed philosopher François Jullien to join him as he saluted the launch of the new branding and explained the Extime name.
“I salute anyone here who has had to create a brand name; it is very, very difficult. It was a long road, in which we heard many good names, but I wanted the right name. So when we reached an impasse in this process we called a friend, a philosopher who has been translated into 27 languages, namely François Jullien.
“Extime is his idea and he helped us find the light at the end of the tunnel. First, Extime is a French word, meaning the opposite of ‘intime’ but we preferred to adopt the English significance of this word. It signifies a timeless cocoon and it means also extra time or super time. After we adopted the name we had to create our place.
“Mathieu Daubert adopted my two principles in management. You have to have the best team and to be sure that they communicate for success at the end. Mathieu gathered a great team of designers, the best partners and called on the most illustrious houses in luxury, beauty, gastronomy, and finally the best ambassadors to lead our hospitality project.”
Dermot Davitt writes: The new Paris CDG Terminal 1 is not just a flagship for Groupe ADP but a wonderful example of how airports can blend consumer-friendly and strong-performing commercially spaces. Under the Extime model, each boutique terminal features its own look and feel – hardly surprising as each is being reimagined by a different designer, yet each is also unmistakably Parisian, with clever, quirky features to arouse the curiosity of visitors.
You see it in designer Dorothée Meilichzon’s subtle aviation touches and use of old aircraft parts in T2G to Maxime Liautard and Hugo Toro’s seating, lighting and 1930s style décor in T1. Simply beautiful.
The spaces are not just for show but are convenient too – a plug in every seat, not just shared by passengers; a TV theatre in the boarding lounge in T1, a quiet room for babies to sleep along the main walkway to gates. Most of all, the maximum six minutes walking time from security to gate. Here, ADP has made its old, fragmented terminal system into a positive, shrinking the scale but breathing new life into its terminals by adding experience.
The retail zone takes what ADP did with its partners at CDG Hall 2K previously to much acclaim and adds a new layer of surprise and brilliant execution. The high vaulted ceiling of the central area is breathtaking, the great beauty brands at its heart elegantly presented, the double-fronted heights of the luxury boutiques eye-catchingly impressive.
Brand owners we met at last night’s celebration were buoyant about the final executions, as of course were senior ADP management, which said spends had – in the short time since opening in December – exceeded even above the €60 average that Hall K generates, which the airports group believes is a global high for any terminal.
For any airport, being akin to ‘a hotel where your guests don’t sleep’ has a neat aspirational ring to it, evoking comfort, peace and the human touch that all good hospitality should bring. ADP’s ‘boutique terminals’ model in Paris and later worldwide are set to become memorable junctions of travel and commerce that can and should inspire many others in our industry. 
Paris CDG Terminal 2B/D in focus
