Introduction: Wella Company is on the move in the travel retail industry. The haircare, nailcare and beauty tech company reached a milestone last year with a striking placement at World of Beauty store’s LookLab zone in Frankfurt Airport, through a partnership with Gebr. Heinemann.
Other key collaborations followed, with Wella Professionals, Sebastian Professional and OPI brands’ footprint in the channel set to grow rapidly.
The company is focused on offering travelling consumers what Wella believes they want: exclusive packs of travel-sized products and innovative ‘must-haves’ like OPI’s xPRESS/ON reusable press-on nails.
Wella Company Head of Global Travel Retail Marco Vitale considers the new products, outlining the Wella approach to the channel and why its products tick all the necessary boxes. He talks with The Moodie Davit Report’s Colleen Morgan.
Wella Company describes itself as an “innovative global leader in the beauty industry that combines 140+ years of earned wisdom and industry experience with the enthusiastic growth momentum of a newly minted independent entity”.
It also notes that every day Wella and its associated brands “impact a diverse community of more than 91 million beauty lovers and industry professionals, social influencers, ambassadors, followers, employees and customers across the globe”. It is the needs of this ‘Wella Family’ – and other travelling consumers – which Marco Vitale wants to see met in global travel retail.
The company gained its ‘independence’ in December 2020 when Coty sold a majority stake in its Professional and Retail Hair business to global investment firm KKR. That marked the start of Wella’s growth plan, with Vitale assuming his travel retail-related role after more than 20 years in the beauty industry, mostly in premium and travel retail.
The Moodie Davitt Report: At the end of last year, Wella Company marked a successful year as a standalone company, with growth ahead of expectations. What role did travel retail play in this?
Marco Vitale: Yes, indeed it has been a very successful year thanks to the remarkable successes we had in expanding our footprint beyond our traditional Professional channel (for example, in premium retail and ecommerce).
Our expansion in travel retail officially started at the beginning of calendar 2023, just a few months after the company’s first-ever participation in the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes in October 2022. Thanks to the partnerships with some of the key players in the channel – Avolta, Gebr. Heinemann, DFA, Viking and many others – we are gradually entering top airports, cruise ships, duty paid stores and all other relevant channels.
How does Wella ‘fit’ into travel retail and what can make the company stand out?
We believe there is a perfect match between travel retail and our brands and we can leverage consumers’ appetite towards high-quality product and professional endorsement to deliver trusted, professional quality products.
Professional is the new premium: this is where we believe there is a perfect match between our offer, and travel retail’s demand.
What is the strategy for the future? Does Wella intend to extend its footprint in the channel and what brands will be highlighted?
Our strategy is to leverage strong partnerships with the travel retailers that see the opportunity in working with us on the two growing beauty categories like haircare and nails. We will make our more than 140-year experience available to them in these categories and we will listen to their needs and advice, adapting accordingly our strategy. We are experts of the categories; they are experts of the channel.
The focus will be on what we currently have in the travel retail assortment: Wella Professionals, Sebastian Professional and OPI. With these three brands we believe we cover all the relevant hair benefits, price partitions and offer a very wide menu of tools to meet the specific travel retail channel’s needs. Travel retail-exclusive sets are available for Hair Care (Wella Professionals), Hair Care & Styling (Sebastian Professional) and Nail Colour and Care (OPI).
All three brands offer mini and travel sizes and we have launched two innovations – OPI xPRESS/ON and OPI Repair Mode – for an ‘On-The-Go Salon’ concept.
The Wella Professionals Sun Care set highlights on-the-go aftersun care while the Wella Professionals Ultimate Repair set offers a 90-second hair repair solution.   Sebastian Dark Oil is a lightweight styling oil that will smooth the hair and add body, giving it weightless shine and finish.
From the OPI range, OPI xPRESS/ ON offers an innovative gel-like, on-the-go salon manicure and OPI Repair Mode is the first-ever bond-building nail serum for 99% nail keratin repair and stronger, smoother nails.
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And the manicure and hairstyling station concept in airports?
We partnered with Lagardère Travel Retail and Geneva Airport to feature OPI as an exclusive brand in a nail salon they opened inside the terminal, and we are willing and hoping to bring more of these experiences to live with other retailers in many more airports
What regional markets and demographics is the company targeting?
We are a global company with a strong presence everywhere, almost in every domestic market. Therefore, it is in our nature to target global opportunities leveraging our regional presence as much as possible.
For travel retail we started focusing on the EMEA and Americas markets because we have enjoyed a very strong pull since the beginning, and we were most prepared there. But now we are ready to start in the APAC region as well and we are looking forward to meeting current and future partners at the upcoming TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition in Singapore, Level 1, P12. ✈
