The Moodie Blog

The Moodie Report Sri Lanka Bureau at the famous Galle Face hotel is now fully functional and I am wondering with this view whether I shall ever return to dank and dismal London.

Anyway, why would I need to? The travel retail industry has descended on Colombo. Or that’s how it feels anyway…

Industry figures from all around the world have flown into Sri Lanka this week to celebrate the wedding of industry stalwart Rakhita Jayawardena’s beautiful daughter Aneeka to Sourav, a grand and happy event which takes place later today.

In true travel retail style, a day of celebration has turned into several days of fun, frivolity and friendship, fuelled by a few drinks along the way.

On Wednesday night Rakhita’s friends and family gathered at the house of his other daughter Yuvani, while last night the international contingent enjoyed poolside cocktails at long-time industry figure Paul Topping’s house, followed by a ‘night whizz’ around some of Colombo’s best drinking and dining (mainly the former) locations.

[Yasmin and Rakhita Jayawardena, Val Ferne, Jane Grant]

[Terror on the tuk-tuk: Jonathan and Eleen Holland]

Then came the three most dangerous words in the travel retail language. “Fancy a nightcap?”

As it happened, I did. So did several others. And several others fancied several nightcaps. At least I kept to my promise to go to bed early before the big wedding day.  4a.m is very early, after all…

[Another quiet night in travel retail]

[And, on the eve of the wedding, another early finish...]

Today, blearily, I picked up the morning newspaper ‘The Island’ (pictured below) from outside my door. The headline read ‘Alcohol consumption soars; Colombo leads’.

How did they know so soon? Wow, these journalists here sure move quickly. ..

“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). – Alice in Wonderland

And indeed, I found some of the signage at Autogrill Lanka’s duty free stores at Colombo Bandaranaike Airport curious and then… curiouser.

‘Guaranteed 100% genuine products’ screams the signage outside the retailer’s Arrivals store.

‘Genuine products with amazing offers’, shout another.

And there’s more. Autogrill Lanka is also giving out pamphlets (pictured below), headlined ‘Are you buying a genuine product? – Yes that’s our guarantee’.

It continues: “When you purchase at Autogrill Lanka Limited – Duty Free – your products will be genuine, meeting the highest international standards required for all imported products. Autogrill Lanka (formerly Orient Lanka) is a member of the World Duty Free Group, which is the largest travel retail duty free operator in the world’ [actually it is number four –Ed].

The leaflet goes on to describe how consumers can check for authenticity and quality – hologram stickers on spirits bottles, ‘taste the difference of genuine product’ on confectionery, ‘our perfume range is sourced from leading French perfume houses and airfreighted to ensure freshness’. And so on…

What’s going on here? Why the need to emphasise such virtues which are surely a given in any international duty free store? Or is this a none-too-subtle dig at the company’s new competitor Flemingo Duty Free, an attempt to undermine the latter’s offer? Certainly the approach has not gone down well with Flemingo, whether it is the intended target or not.

Rivalry is rivalry and though in my view the Arrivals set-up (two stores, immediately adjacent to one another, both on one side of the main passenger flow) is crazy, the two-operator scenario may turn out better than many in the industry feared. Certainly there has been no damaging, nonsensical price-cutting. Surely healthy rivalry is the best way forward, with both companies helping to drive up the other’s standards?

One can’t blame Autogrill Lanka for being miffed at having to split its concession. But I would say that the company would be far better off championing its own very real virtues – a good product range, keenly priced and neatly merchandised –  than raising the spectre of counterfeit or out of condition product.

Ultimately that approach simply raises consumer doubts about the channel. It’s certainly not helpful to the reputation of the duty free industry.

As Alice said, “Curiouser and curiouser!” Or, to take similar liberties with the English language, a questionable question of authenticity.

[Spot the difference: Flemingo (left) and Autogrill Lanka are competing head-t0-head in Arrivals duty free and the rivalry appears to be developing a harder edge]

The opening of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandy (pictured above and below) in June will be a historic moment for aviation in the German capital. In 1990, Germany was reunited as a single country, with a newly reunited Berlin reinstated as its capital. But it has taken more than 20 years for air traffic at the city’s three airports (two of which, Tegel and Schoenefeld, are still fully operational) to come under one roof. That will happen with the opening of the new facility in just over four months.

It’s been an immensely exciting project for many of those involved, not least the commercial management team headed by Dr. Norbert Minhorst. They have grabbed the opportunity to create something vibrant and different on this greenfield site, including a 9,000sq m retail plaza at its heart.

What is perhaps most striking is the emphasis that airport management puts on recreating what they call “the flair of Berlin” at the new location.

Many airport managers pay lip service to the idea of a Sense of Place – where the local city or region is represented and even recreated through design and services – but that’s certainly not the case in Berlin.

Over a quarter of the new retail tenants will present typical concepts from the Berlin and Brandenburg region. The new names include Fassbender & Rausch, an Ampelmann store, a museum shop run by Freunde der Preussischen Schlösser und Gärten (Friends of Prussian Castles and Gardens), and local specialities from the Spreewald region.

In food & beverage the proportion of local and regional concepts is even higher, at around half of all tenancies.

And one senses the pride that management takes in making those decisions to appoint local names and helping them to adapt their ideas and styles to the airport market.

(Photos: Berlin Airports: Bjorn Rolle)

Minhorst says: “We wanted to make a clear statement that ‘this is Berlin’. We want people to have a clear feeling that they are departing from Berlin, not anywhere else. So creating a regional flavour with tenants from Berlin and from Brandenburg was important.

“We spent a lot of time talking to local companies about how we could bring them into the airport environment, mainly in food & beverage, but also in fashion, children’s goods and confectionery retail. And each of these sectors is represented through local partners.

“The same feel applies to the terminal building. The architect designed it so it looks like a piece of Brandenburg, and there are even similarities with the new National Gallery in Berlin. The terminal and also the space around it are closely tied with the region.”

Taking that approach wasn’t an easy decision. Berlin, after all, sees itself as a global city, with aspirations to challenge other German (namely Frankfurt and Munich) and European airports for market leadership in the years ahead. But that goal was superseded by a choice to showcase the best of Brandenburg.

Knowing Berlin as one of Europe’s most diverse, liberal and exciting cities, we hope that decision is vindicated, and that its values are reflected in the offer when the new airport opens.

As always with a new airport or terminal opening, we intend to be among the first to visit, in this case partly to test out the local delicacies. Anyone for Eisbein or Boulette?

I’ve arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, along it seems with half the travel retail industry, for Friday’s wedding of Rakhita Jayawardena’s daughter Aneeka.

It’s certain to be a great occasion. More to follow.

Today, fresh (or not) off the plane from Heathrow, I took a tour of the new Flemingo duty free Arrivals and Departures shops at Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport.

The airport has for many years had a solus duty free operator (Alpha, now part of the World Duty Free Group) but last year the airport company took the contentious decision to split the concession into two. It was ultimately shared between World Duty Free Group and Flemingo.

I’ll bring you a full report on the Flemingo stores in coming days (look out for my Podcast with CEO PK Thimmayya on The Moodie Report.com now). Despite having by far the worst of the traffic flow in Arrivals (below) and, arguably, a secondary position in Departures, the retailer is doing an impressive job. I liked the Departures store particularly.

Pictures and impressions coming soon. First I’ve got a pre-wedding party to rush to..

A quick trip to Zürich yesterday left me a few hours to experience the commercial offering at the airport, which has benefited hugely from the recent creation of a centralised security operation, complemented by revamped walkthrough Departures duty free shops run by The Nuance Group.

Love them or hate them, there’s no question that walk-through stores are a winning formula. Last week I was at Geneva Airport and it’s interesting to contrast the impact of the walk-through Arrivals store there and the non-walk-through Arrivals environment in Zürich.

With the Swiss Franc standing at 1.21 to the Euro (the government intervened last year to keep it from moving beyond the 1.20 barrier), Nuance needs all the help it can get, and walk-through is undoubtedly a huge lever, for footfall of course but also of conversion.

It was noticeable yesterday in Zürich how few arriving travellers were going into the store, even though it is right alongside the baggage hall.

 [One passenger stops on arrival at Zürich but the walk-through formula, below, has huge advantages]

[Walk-through in Geneva]

No-one can miss the store and its openness and attractive design seem alluring. But here’s the thing – at Geneva, travellers are by definition in the store and my wholly unscientific comparison showed clearly which outlet was attracting the greater number of browsers.

Later in the day I did my best to raise the airport’s average spend per departing passenger (CHF39.40/US$41.29) across its commercial offer. The airport outlets both helped and hindered that aim in various ways.

I commented on the excellence of the Lindt boutique on the day of the Grand Opening in December. That was amid the glare of publicity and the presence of many VIPS. Yesterday was just a quiet trading day and I slipped into the store unannounced and unknown.

I don’t know the confiseur’s (chocolate maker) name but he should be awarded a gold medal (chocolate of course) by Lindt, Nuance and Zürich Airport. Noticing me admiring the loose chocolates and variously flavoured slabs, he offered me a couple of delectable samples and, along with a colleague, showed me a selection of items in the store. He was enthusiastic, personable, knowledgeable.

It’s another winning formula. Two slabs of cranberry-studded dark chocolate and a gift box of loose, wrapped nut chocolates later, I was CHF29.10 towards that average spend.

Next stop was Center Bar, run by SSP, and awarded the title of the world’s best airport bar at The Moodie Report’s inaugural Airport Food & Beverage Awards last year.

With a weak but brilliant winter sun shining in through the giant glass panels that allow the traveller to look out over the tarmac and the lovely views beyond, it’s a terrific place to take a coffee, a beer or a light meal in the late afternoon. But not, it seems, a glass of Swiss wine.

With 45 minutes to go before my flight, and a long day behind me, a glass of crisp dry white from, say, Appenzell, Neuchâtel, Valais or Vaud would have been just the thing.

“Sorry, we don’t sell Swiss wine,” said the polite young lady in an impeccable Swiss accent. “We have Pinot Grigio from Italy or Chardonnay from California.” Or Zinfandel Blush, also from the USA.

In fact the real blush here should belong to the sourcing team for neglecting local produce.

Curious. Swiss is a quality wine-producing country (although it tends to keep the best for domestic consumption rather than export) and proud of it. Center Bar offers Swiss beer and Swiss Kirsch but no Swiss wine. Yes, the country’s wines tend (by dint of small production) to be more expensive than Italian Pinot Grigio or Beringer Chardonnay, but most travellers would be happy to pay the difference to get a taste of Switzerland.

What a pity. It’s such a nice, tranquil bar, Roger Federer-like in its serenity (with particular appropriateness, a singer-guitarist (below) was playing ‘Sounds of Silence’ as travellers relaxed before their flights).  Oddly, it also lacked a flight information display screen, something I would consider crucial to an airport catering outlet.

I parted, slightly reluctantly, with CHF6.90 for a glass of Pinot Grigio. But at CHF36.00 I was still short of the average spend. Zürich Airport’s Senior Vice President Commercial Marketing & Real Estate Patrick Graf would be disappointed in me.

Time was now tight and I started the long journey to my gate. On the way, I found the perfect opportunity to top up my spend and take home that taste of Switzerland I was deprived of at the Center Bar. It’s called The Spirit of Switzerland, also run by The Nuance Group, and it’s packed with Swiss foods, souvenirs, gifts and an outstanding local wine selection, beautifully displayed.

I eyed a range of bottles. But I don’t know Swiss wine well and needed some advice. Problem. There was no-one on hand to help me. No-one behind the counter. In fact, was there anyone, other than me, in the store?

It’s a very long shop and way down the other end I could make out what I took to be a shop assistant. But she was too far away and time was too short. So… no Swiss wine. No spend in this store. Around the edges of retail, as it were, are fortunes (or at least incremental spend) won or lost.

Zürich Airport has come a long way in terms of its commercial offer. In my view it now ranks as one of the most consumer-orientated, traveller-friendly airports in the world, thanks to enlightened management and a pro-active, partnership-driven relationship with generally excellent concessionaires.

Some fine-tuning (with a bit of help from the Swiss Franc) and some fine Swiss wine in F&B and it could be even better.

The Moodie Report paid a visit last week to Finest Spirits & Cigars, Schiphol Airport Retail’s (SAR) high-end wines, spirits and cigars boutique – and discovered just why the Schiphol Group-owned subsidiary is building its reputation as one of Europe’s most progressive travel retailers.

The store is only open four months but already sales are ahead of budget, with Chinese travellers seeking extra special luxury items (mainly Cognac and Bordeaux wines) contributing 30% of turnover – a remarkable figure at an airport where passenger volumes are dominated by Europeans.

The allure of the store to Chinese, Russians and Dutch connoisseurs lies in the rarity value of many of the items, and the exceptional displays and presentations.

Among the items on show are a beautifully showcased Hennessy Berlutti XO Mathusalem (below); a Rémy Martin “Black Pearl” Magnum (the last one left anywhere, we’re told) and The Dalmore EOS 59yo, alongside a selection of rare and aged whiskies. The wine and Champagne offer is no less impressive: this includes a Dom Perignon Rosé Gold 1996 Mathusalem; a Krug Clos Ambonnay 1996; a full case of Domaine Romanée Conti 1998; plus exceptional vintages of 1990 Château Petrus, Château Margaux and Château Le Pin, as well as Château Lafitte Rothschild 2003.

The retailer has yet to embark on any major marketing of the store, and so far word of mouth among consumers has carried the message far and wide. The trade is also sitting up and taking notice. When Hennessy Cognac was seeking a launch partner for its limited edition €150,000 Beauté du Siècle this month, it looked no further that Schiphol, though it could easily have chosen an Asia Pacific airport to target potential buyers of this one-of-a-kind Cognac presentation.

SAR has played its own part in pushing the boundaries of the range. It led a collaboration between Whyte & Mackay brand The Dalmore and another Schiphol concessionaire, Gassan Diamonds, to create the €250,000 presentation for The Dalmore Brilliance Vintage 1926 – valued at €250,000 ex-VAT. This arrived in the store in December (pictured below).

Items such as these are not for every traveller clearly, but from what we saw during our visit, they do raise awareness and expectation among a certain type of traveller.

As SAR Director Peter-Jan Rozenberg told me: “With The Dalmore Brilliance and Beauté du Siècle we have two outstanding masterpieces. The speciality store in liquor is a growing trend at airports today, but it has to be about raising the level of the category, and the reputation of the industry. With these two editions, we are doing that.”

Here’s a story that has particular resonance for me, as a fanatical supporter of the All Blacks rugby team but also as a huge admirer of the Munster provincial side in Ireland and their outstanding supporters.

Last year I was contacted by Limerick-based author John Garrett (below), who was writing a book (now published*) on heroic figures from the southern Irish city.

It’s called ‘Be Inspired’, sub-titled ‘Images and stories of Limerick’s true leaders’ – be they serving in the refugee camps of impoverished countries or pushing the limits in sporting disciplines or voluntary work.

John notes: “I have always been intrigued by people who have tried to make a difference and be the best they can. They all have one thing in common. They choose to respond positively. They identify the things that are important to them. They set their goals and take all the small necessary actions to ensure that the ultimate goal is achieved.

“Do they experience failure? Of course they do. Nobody said it was going to be easy. The real leader will get up, lick his or her wounds, assess what went wrong and do things differently next time. Leaders inspire others to create change.”

The foreword is by Irish sporting legend Tony Ward, in my view one of the greatest fly halfs to ever walk on (actually, make that dance) the rugby planet. He was a pivoting, pirouetting, play-making genius.

Fellow Irish ruby-playing great Mike Gibson wrote of him: “Tony Ward is the most important rugby player in Ireland. His legs are far more important to his country than even those of Marlene Dietrich were to the film industry.”

He inspired Munster to a legendary win over the All Blacks, scoring two drop goals and a conversion in an unforgettable (well no Irishman will ever let you forget it) 12-0 victory at Thomond Park on 31 October 1978. To date Munster are the only Irish team ever to beat the All Blacks.

Thirty years on, I attended a second clash between the two teams, again at Thomond Park and this time to mark the 30th anniversary of that great sporting upset.

It was a spellbinding, spine-tingling occasion. It began, famously, with four New Zealanders in the Munster team – Howlett, Tupoki, Manning and Mafi – performing their own haka to challenge that of the All Blacks. You could have powered the whole of Ireland with the electricity of the moment.

And the match. Oh what a match. Munster, raging hotter than an Aussie bush fire, hunting  All Blacks like 15 rabid hounds, gave it everything and then some. In truth they deserved to repeat history.

But history’s grand prizes are as elusive as a Tony Ward side-step and sport can be profoundly cruel. And so it was when All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko (above) scored in the corner just minutes before the final whistle. It must have broken every Munster supporter’s heart. But then something extraordinary happened. This is how I described it in an article I penned the following day:

When ‘Smokin’ Joe’ scored that heart breaking, game-breaking try in the 87th minute, Stephen Donald’s resultant conversion attempt, if successful, would have put the All Blacks out of reach of defeat by an even later drop goal or penalty.

It was the most crucial of kicks. In almost any other stadium in the world, at least outside Ireland, the booing from the home supporters would have been loud, venomous and prolonged.

Yet as Donald lined up his kick the only sound in the eerily still, and yet monumentally flattened crowd was the occasional “Shhhhh” as spectators reminded their compatriots of their great yet unwritten sporting code. The kick missed – perhaps it was the silence that undid Donald on that and several other occasions during the evening.

During one of Donald’s earlier, and also crucial, kicks, the silence was broken only by the barking of a dog from outside the stadium.

That’s right – you could hear a dog barking in a backstreet of Limerick, such was the silence inside Thomond Park. You almost expected the crowd to collectively look in the direction of the dog, raise their fingers to their lips, and whisper “Shhhhh” in the direction of the hapless hound.

To my very great pride, that article was quoted by many people in Ireland, most notably by Tony Ward himself in his Christmas column in the Irish Independent that year.

Now, I am delighted to say, my report has been reproduced in full as one of the chapters in Be Inspired.

Even more pleasingly, John Garrett is splitting the proceeds of the book between two important charities. The first is The Shane Geoghegan Trust, formed in honour of a rugby player from Garryowen who was tragically murdered in a case of mistaken identity as part of a gang feud in Limerick in 2008.

The second is the Rugby World Cup Christchurch Appeal (www.rwcchristchurchappeal.com), dedicated to helping restore Christchurch’s wrecked rugby infrastructure at all levels after the devastation to the New Zealand city (my hometown) caused by the February 22, 2011 earthquake.

It’s a great book, benefiting great causes. The Moodie Report has ten copies of Be Inspired to give away to the first ten readers who can answer the following questions.

1) Who was Tony Ward’s constant rival for the Irish number 10 shirt?

2) What fourth-choice New Zealand number 10, cruelly derided by many All Blacks’ supporters as ‘Duck’ (and, appropriately, currently located in a Bath outfit), kicked a crucial penalty to help his team win the 2011 Rugby World Cup final?

Send your answers by e-mail, headed ‘Be Inspired’ to Martin@TheMoodieReport.com

* Be Inspired is published by KPM Publishing Limerick and retails at €20.00.

Heartwarming news reaches us from Beijing where cleft charity The Smile Train (www.SmileTrain.org) this week called a press conference to announce that it has now funded and performed 250,000 free cleft repair surgeries in China.

The conference was attended by over 50 media agencies, while three live surgeries were broadcast to show the nature and importance of the work.

“I will sleep sound tonight,” were the simple, satisfied words in a message to me from Dr Shell Xue (below), the inspirational figure who leads The Smile Train China.

The Smile Train is well-known to the travel retail industry and vice-versa. Our sector has been a major source of funding for the charity since 2007. In 2007 The Moodie Report and Hugo Boss held a major fund-raising dinner in Hong Kong, raising US$350,000, led by Shell Xue and featuring an unforgettably moving speech by Wang Li (below), who had been the first cleft child ever to have been operated on through The Smile Train. 

Both 2008 and 2009 saw industry runners participating in a ‘Miles for Smiles’ 10k charity run in Dubai. At the 2009 event Dubai Duty Free memorably donated US$1.5 million to assist The Smile Train’s work in the Philippines. The funding was used to recruit additional staff, purchase vehicles and equipment, and to perform 3,800 cleft surgeries.

The Patrón Spirits Company was another notable supporter, with Chief Operating Officer John McDonnell (below) driving hundreds of thousands of Dollars of donations at various events, including the company’s own golf tournament in Florida.

The Beijing event this week coincided with the 250,000th cleft operation, conducted at the nearby China Meitan General Hospital in Beijing

Upholding the notion of ‘teaching a man to fish’, The Smile Train doesn’t send medical teams from other countries to operate in the developing world; instead, it provides the local doctors in these countries with free training to enable them to perform free, high-quality surgeries. Largely as a result of the charity’s philosophy, countries such as India and China have become epi-centres of excellence in cleft surgery.

As our industry benefits worldwide from booming Chinese spending in travel retail, it’s worth remembering these sobering statistics – there are 20,000 to 30,000 newborn babies with cleft lips and/or palates born every year in China. Children with this birth defect cannot eat or speak properly, and cannot attend school or, ultimately, hold a job. Their lives are filled with shame, pain and hardship. The Smile Train brings not only a new smile but a new life.

Currently, Smile Train is active in 84 countries around the globe. It has been responsible for a remarkable 700,000 free cleft repair surgeries. At this week’s press conference, China Charity Federation Chairman Fan Baojun said “The Smile Train is one of the most influential charity projects in China.”

For all concerned, patients, families, funders, and the travel retail community, that’s 700,000 causes to smile.

As super-powers go, being invisible is surely up there with the best of them. There can’t be too many among us who would pass up the chance to wander around unseen and undetected, if only for a day or two.

Invisibility is equally desirable for certain make-up products – think foundation, powder and concealer (despite the best efforts in the UK of Jordan, Jodie Marsh and the entire TOWIE cast to prove otherwise). But making such products imperceptible has been easier said than done. Until now. Step forward Estée Lauder’s latest foundation, Invisible Fluid Makeup, which was previewed to the press before Christmas at the Soho Hotel in London.

The Moodie Report’s Rebecca Mann gets an Invisible make-over

Invisible is described as a technologically-advanced intuitive liquid foundation that perfects the skin without leaving a trace. Moreover, thanks to its patent-pending IntuiTone™ technology, the make-up is said to guarantee a true-to-life shade match by working with consumers’ natural undertones, so skin appears fresh, flawless and radiantly perfected in every light. In other words, it not only looks ultra-natural, it’s virtually mistake-proof in terms of selecting the right shade – a big advantage, not least for travel retail doors without dedicated beauty advisors on hand.

The inspiration for, and science behind, Invisible was explained by Anne Carullo, the straight-talking and hugely informative Senior Vice President of Global Product Development for Estée Lauder and Tom Ford Beauty.

At the launch, Carullo managed the impossible by making both physics and chemistry interesting; conducted a brilliant “disappearing” experiment; and taught me more about reflection, refraction and diffusion than I ever thought possible (finally, my Science teacher would be proud).

To fully demonstrate the properties of Invisible, Estée Lauder also had a make-up artist on hand, to apply the new foundation on the media guests present. Now, given that my milk-white complexion manages to make most vampires appear sun-tanned in comparison, finding a foundation that doesn’t make me look like a Satsuma is usually a pretty big challenge. But lo, thanks to said IntuiTone™ technology, there were at least three shades that looked perfect, with 2CN1 declared the eventual winner.

Lauder describes its latest base as a “completely new direction for the brand”. Carullo herself believes it could eventually herald a completely new type of foundation. She declared: “I have to keep innovating, to the point where maybe one day a foundation will look as clear as a glass of water.”

Watch this (Invisible) space.

And so we close out another year. On an industry level it has been a typically fascinating12 months. On a personal level it has involved a momentous journey. You will excuse therefore the intimacy of this final Blog of 2011.

One year ago to this day I was just commencing my final three weeks of chemotherapy, the culmination of my treatment for stomach cancer. I was weak, emaciated, constantly nauseous, clinging on basically, in the knowledge that it would all soon be over and that some sort of normal service might shortly be resumed.

That ‘normal’ would take many twists and turns. Like an injured rugby player desperate to return to the fray, I rushed back too soon, with predictably unfortunate results. Five days out of chemo I fronted an industry conference in a former airport hangar in Manchester.

I was not ready, physically nor emotionally. I still cringe at the memory and silently thank a couple of very special (and unexpected) people who saw me through some dark and fragile moments there.

It was January in northern England and outside it was cold. Bitterly cold. Inside, though, it was supposed to be warm. I recall standing on stage making my opening remarks and starting to shiver.

Embarrassingly, my nose started to drip as I spoke. Like many chemotherapy patients I felt the cold intensely – I was used to wearing six or seven layers but here, suddenly, I was back to a business shirt, suit and tie. It’s just the chemo, I assured myself on stage, racing through my words.

I got through the speech but by now was shaking with cold. Was it just me? I noticed members of the audience, too, looking none too warm.

The reason soon became apparent. For the first time in the facility’s history the heating had failed. It took the hosts several hours to get it working again. Faced by crisis we resorted to that perennial airport favourite – airline blankets.

“Someone up there really doesn’t like me,” I remember thinking.

We survived. With a commendable ‘blitz’ mentality among the delegates, and heating eventually restored, the event, against all odds, was a success.

A couple of weeks later I continued my uncertain comeback trail in Bangkok at The Trinity Forum. This time I lasted only as long as the first morning, before succumbing to a cripplingly painful bowel blockage (a common complication post-stomach removal, caused by constricting scar tissue) and being hospitalized for a week with the fear, ignominy and discomfort of a nasogastric tube in place. I guess this is as low as I got throughout a bleak period in my life.

For several days I faced the prospect of an operation and weeks of recovery in a foreign country if what the medics called this ‘conservative’ treatment did not clear the problem. Fortunately it did, thanks to the superb team at Bangkok’s Bumrumgrad International Hospital.

[The Moodie Report's Bumrungrad Bureau in Bangkok]

By night six, I was surreptitiously sipping a little (make that a lot on one occasion) Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc to bring relief from my dreary water diet. Hey, it’s only grapes and water, right? As recommended for every hospital patient. Who am I to argue?

At times my hospital room resembled a Trinity Forum in miniature as countless delegates dropped in to see me. Jonathan Holland, Stuart McGuire, Jane Grant, Sunil Tuli, Rakhita Jayawardena and David King barely left my side. Colm and Breeda McLoughlin and Dan Cappell too.

Some slept or stood by my side through the night. Amigos all. My own team, of course. James Richardson’s’ Garry Stock turned up with enough flowers to stock a chain of florists. Susan Whelan of King Power and her partner Robbie Gill (The Design Solution) were like brother and sister to me, nothing was too much trouble for them. Even when I needed some Cloudy Bay… no, that would be giving away secrets.

The King Power team, from Chairman Vichai Raksriaksorn and his number two Chulchit Bunyaketu to the incredible management and staff at Pullman Bangkok King Power (please, make it your hotel of choice in Bangkok, you won’t find better), looked after me as if I was a chosen son.

Constant visits from industry friends to the hospital. Too many to mention all the names (sorry, my memory is so blurred of the time I can barely recall some visitors). I was upset to see them upset. Let me reverse Dickens’ phrase and call it the worst of times, the best of times. Never did I see so much goodness in people.

Medical crisis over, I recall vividly heading back to the King Power Hotel a week after The Trinity Forum had ended. Everyone had long gone. I remembered the words of the Melanie Safka song, ‘Leftover Wine’:

What do you do when the people go home?
And what do you do when the show is all done?
 I know what I’ll do in the alone of my time
But what will I do with the leftover wine?

I had to wait another week before I was given clearance to fly. It could have been a horrible, lonely time but the King Power team made it an unforgettable few days for me and my Kiwi pal Barry, a mate since secondary school, who flew over to ensure I was ok. In the blink of history that is one’s lifetime, such moments are to be cherished.

And then. One day back in London and the same terrible onslaught of the same crippling pains. Another day, another blockage, another week in hospital – but this time necessitating an operation, back at my old haunt The Royal Marsden Hospital.

The terrible feeling of déjà vu, back in intensive care in a cancer hospital, hallucinating once more in the night due to the painkillers, cowering from the spiders on the wall, yelling for the nurse, terrified.

I recall a dear, dear school friend of mine from New Zealand coming to visit me there. She hadn’t seen me since 1987 and we both braced as our eyes met. I was fearful of her reaction to my wasted, weary appearance; she was desperate not to reveal it. Tough times. The doctors told me there was every chance these blockages would recur.

Life as I knew it, led by so much international travel, something I loved, seemed nigh impossible. No way, though, was I going to accept that. Hey, there was a Rugby World Cup due in New Zealand in October and everyone knew the Cup was coming home…

And then. And then…

April 3, 2011: “There’s no disease in your body as far as we can tell.”

The words came from my oncologist’s perennially sympathetic assistant Toni. She was calling just after the first of regular six-monthly scans I will face (hopefully) over the next five years, before I am declared officially ‘in remission’ from cancer.

My life changed that day. Although relief rather than euphoria was my reaction at the time, the news gave me the strength to battle the more mundane, yet in some ways more daunting, challenge of the post-surgical bowel blockages. If I could take on the bullying beast that is cancer and win, I reasoned, then surely I could beat more banal medical complications.

No more self pity. It was time for self help. Intensive reading followed. A fantastic nutritionist said she could assist and did. Someone told me to chew my food 25 times to compensate for the lack of stomach. Amazingly, it worked. Nine months on since the last complication and I have seldom felt better.

Another ‘all clear’ in November (incredibly after one month in New Zealand living the Rugby World Cup dream with John and Karl Sutcliffe, Colm and Breeda McLoughlin, Jonathan Holland and various New Zealand mates, they even said my liver was functioning perfectly) and life seems good. Business is good and I am bursting with new ideas for 2012. Life is rich. And goddamn it, the All Blacks even won the World Cup…

[An impromptu scrum is formed to celebrate World Cup victory over the French. Spot the three Irishmen in with the kiwis.]

[With the Irish knocked out of the tournament, Breeda McLoughlin starts to support the Kiwis in New Zealand] 

[World Cup deliverance at last]

But it all remains fragile. And therefore to be cherished. As I write, a close industry friend has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. She will survive, I know, but she has a fight on her hands. And we all know others who do too. This disease is undiscerning in the brutality of its selection process. The past year may have spared me but it has claimed countless others.

So to close, and in wishing all our readers a happy, joyous, loving and most of all healthy 2012, I take pleasure in relating an e-mail I received on the eve of my operation last October from Lynn Arce, an amazing woman who heads DFS’s Global Creative and Consumer Marketing. I was scared and it gave me strength. It will stay with me forever. It read:

Hi Martin:

I could quote a zillion things from all of the books that we have read but one that I think is most appropriate is from Winnie the Pooh which I’m sure you’ve shared with your kids. The excerpt is as follows:

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. “Pooh,” he whispered.

“Yes, Piglet?”

“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw, “I just wanted to be sure of you.””

I’m sure of you Martin.  I’m sure of you.

Your friend,

Lynn

As this year draws to a close, think about those you love. And be sure of them.

[With Colm McLoughlin in New Zealand, finishing the year in much better shape than I started it]