FRANCE. SDA, the joint venture between Aelia Group and Aéroports de Paris, unveiled a major rebranding of its duty free shops during a series of presentations in the French capital yesterday.
More than 80 brand suppliers gathered in Paris to hear SDA set out its wide-ranging ambition to help create one of the world’s top airport shopping destinations. The Moodie Report was also present to hear the strategy behind the new retail concept for both Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.
Jean-Baptiste Morin, SDA Chairman and Aelia Chairman & CEO, started by unveiling the new brand – BuY PARIS DUTY FREE – and outlined the joint venture’s vision for the airport duty free shops in Paris, which is the world’s number one tourist destination.
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“Together, with your support, we are confident that SDA’s new BuY PARIS DUTY FREE retail concept will deliver an unrivalled and distinctive shopping experience that will symbolise the magic of travel, and the magic of Paris: encouraging shoppers to treat themselves and, most importantly, to buy“ |
Jean-Baptiste Morin SDA Chairman and Chairman & CEO Aelia |
“This is a new chapter in the history of SDA,” Morin told the suppliers and media. “BuY PARIS DUTY FREE will become the benchmark brand for duty free in Paris.”
The rebranding of the duty free shops comprises a modern new black square logo (pictured above) playing on the words ‘By’ and ‘Buy’, and the letter ‘A’ in Paris is shaped like the Eiffel Tower. The attendees – including big-hitters from the worlds of beauty, liquor, tobacco and confectionery – admired an ice sculpture of the iconic Eiffel Tower placed at the entrance of the venue.
But the new concept is not just a ‘relooking’ of the duty free shop fascia, which is taking place between now and December. Morin promises much, much more from SDA.
“Refurbishment projects will take place over the next two years which will radically transform retail in the airports,” he told the audience.
Introducing ‘Concept 2012’
Dubbed ‘Concept 2012’ – the completion date for the new BuY PARIS DUTY FREE retail execution – the concept will encompass larger flagship store formats to maximise the opportunity being created by Aéroports de Paris with its investment in reorganising the retail space at both airports.
In a call to suppliers to work in partnership, Morin said: “Since 2003, SDA has had seven years of continually robust sales growth and we are in a strong position to grow further. Today, we are revealing our ambitious plans for the future – our new travel retail identity for Paris Airports: BuY PARIS DUTY FREE.
“Paris presents enormous opportunity: Paris is the world’s favourite tourist and conference destination, and has the most promising future of any European airport hub. We have a very special relationship with Aéroports de Paris for which we are very grateful. We also have stable and successful partnerships with you, our suppliers.
“Together, with your support, we are confident that SDA’s new BuY PARIS DUTY FREE retail concept will deliver an unrivalled and distinctive shopping experience that will symbolise the magic of travel, and the magic of Paris: encouraging shoppers to treat themselves and, most importantly, to buy. Working together, BuY PARIS DUTY FREE will deliver results for us all. This is our common challenge!”
Diverse shopper profile
SDA Marketing Director Sandrine Mercier spoke about the consumer insight research undertaken by the organisation during the development of the BuY PARIS DUTY FREE retail concept. “The investment by Aéroports de Paris in the retail space at the Paris airports creates an enormous business opportunity for SDA which we are committed to maximising,” she commented. “We have considerable knowledge and understanding of the very diverse shopper profile here in Paris: the buying behaviours of high-spenders, such as the Chinese and the Koreans, differ considerably from low-spending Western European segments.
“Building on our expertise and having invested in independent research, we have identified our key focus for the future – a new consumer-focused strategy, central to which is the development of the BuY PARIS DUTY FREE retail concept.
“We are evolving the BuY PARIS DUTY FREE sales communication brand launched in 2009, to create a new travel retail identity – an umbrella retail brand that will go across all of our stores at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. This will allow us to develop a strong retail message around a single brand enabling better communication with passengers throughout their journey at the airport – from when they arrive at the terminal, check-in at the desks, go through to security, enter the departure lounge, and ultimately, when they visit our stores.
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Big-hitters from the travel retail world enjoyed a piece of BuY PARIS DUTY FREE cake after the SDA presentation in Paris |
“BuY PARIS DUTY FREE will be a new type of store that answers the new space being created by Aéroports de Paris for 2012 and beyond. In each terminal we will have a flagship store as well as last-minute outlets close to boarding areas to maximise passenger interaction and conversion rates.”
Speaking about the customer experience, Aelia Deputy CEO – Buying and Marketing Ambroise Fondeur stated: “Working with our long-time brand partners and building on SDA’s knowledge and customer insight, we will create a unique shopping and retail experience to delight and entice customers through innovative tailored events, promotions, services and exclusive ranges. We are working to improve and strengthen our core categories’ strategies to improve performance and sales ratios. The new retail concept will be a “˜wow’ experience, making passengers feel so good that shopping in a BuY PARIS DUTY FREE store will be THE place they want to be.”
In a statement, the companies added: “SDA and Aelia invite brand partners to share in the development of the BuY PARIS DUTY FREE retail concept, to realise the ambition of creating a unique, magical and totally new customer experience.”
BuY PARIS DUTY FREE – the brand emblem
The BuY PARIS DUTY FREE wording currently used on sales materials and across gifts, accessories and branded sales resources, such as fragrance strips – will be extended to store fascias and wider marketing communications, strengthening and expanding the commercial communication strategy launched in 2009.
Features of the logo are:
The English “˜BY/BuY’ play on words:
– better understood by foreign customers that represent more than half of SDA’s customer base
– seen as a trendy style by French customers
Paris and Eiffel Tower visual reference:
– a universally recognised name, city and landmark
The wording ‘Duty Free’:
– makes the distinction with the city centre
– conjures up the world of the airport
– acts as a “˜last call to buy’ and a clear value identification.
BuY PARIS DUTY FREE: Sales outlets for 2012
The new store space planned to open under the new BuY PARIS DUTY FREE identity is as follows:
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About Aelia
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SDA Marketing Director Sandrine Mercier spoke about the consumer insight research results |
Aelia is a subsidiary of the Lagardère Services Group which operates nearly 4,000 travel retail stores across the world, including a presence at over 100 airports, and is the channel’s leading news and gifts retailer.
Aelia, the group’s duty free and luxury goods specialist, operates over 160 stores at 23 airports, including Paris Charles de Gaulle, Nice Côte d’Azur, London Luton, Prague Ruzyne and Warsaw Frédéric Chopin. The group also operates sales onboard airlines through subsidiary Aeroboutique Inflight Retail (Air France and Iberia), at port stores in Spain (Barcelona, Valencia and Palma de Mallorca) and at the Eurotunnel and Eurostar terminals on the French mainland.
About SDA
SDA (Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire) is a joint venture created in 2003 between Aelia and Aéroports de Paris. SDA’s stores at Charles De Gaulle and Orly airports serve 85 million passengers annually, offering a selection of travel retail categories: perfumes & cosmetics, liquor, tobacco, gourmet foods and confectionery. In 2009 SDA operated 65 shops with 10,700sq m of retail floor space with sales of €342 million; it reported a sales growth of +28% since 2006.
The Lagardère Services Group’s travel retail expertise covers 20 countries across four continents. The group includes HDS Retail North America, Lagardère Services Asia Pacific, as well as several local subsidiaries across Europe.
COMMENT: The Moodie Report attended SDA’s presentation and we loved what we saw and heard. More importantly, so did the suppliers we spoke to after the event. One leading light from the confectionery world said: “This presentation was very exciting; this development is badly needed by Paris airports.”
Another supplier, also from the confectionery category, applauded the consumer insight research that SDA has undertaken during the development of the BuY PARIS DUTY FREE and wanted to hear more details about shop locations and product display opportunities.
In our view the new logo is clever and contemporary, and perfectly conjures up the chic style of Paris, the centre of fashion design.
Like all the brand suppliers present at the event, we can’t wait to see what the BuY PARIS DUTY FREE retail concept will look like in-store when the project is completed by 2012.
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