The Moodie Blog

Seven children will receive new smiles and gain new hope following the successful completion of the Melbourne half marathon by James Kfouri, travel retail head of Paton’s Macadamia Plantations.

As previously reported, James dedicated his run to travel retail’s favourite charity, The Smile Train.

On a beautiful fresh Melbourne morning he completed the run in a smart time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, raising A$2,135 (US$1,725), which (at US$250 each) is enough to fund seven life-transforming operations conducted at The Smile Train-backed clinics.

James is shown relaxing with his little daughter Zara, who looks justifiably proud of her Dad. 

James will also be partaking once more in Miles for Smiles, a 10k fun run in Dubai on 21 November - also raising funds for The Smile Train.

As reported, this year’s fund-raising approach will differ from the individual sponsorship path of 2008. Instead, runners will be asked to pay an entrance fee of €100, and donors will be able to sponsor the whole field rather than having to choose between runners.

The sponsorship target is a more modest US$150,000 (last year reached US$260,000), due to the troubled economic environment. Already the fund-raising has begun - please visit http://www.smiletrain.org/goto/milesforsmiles09 to add your contribution.

If you would like to enter, please contact Rowena Holland at row@essentialcommunications.org; or to sponsor the event and help offset costs please contact Mandy Shine at Mandy.Shine@TheMoodieReport.com

Every business needs an alternative investment strategy and The Moodie Report’s is paying off nicely.

Looking around for another global sector such as travel retail, full of risk, reward and uncertainty, we found one… horse racing.

Over recent months we have conducted a number of online readers’ competitions involving Dubai Duty Free-sponsored horse races, at Newbury and the Curragh (near Dublin) respectively.

On each occasion Dubai Duty Free has offered some great prizes - tickets in their raffle draws to win a million Dollars and/or luxury cars. Our resident Moodie Tipster (pictured below), the most stabilized of the mercurial Moodie team, has been on hand to assist readers with a unique horse-by-horse guide to each race.

And here’s the thing - straight from the horse’s mouth - the Moodie Tipster’s picks are winning.

For the Dubai Duty Free Multi-Millionaire Handicap at Newbury in June, he selected the appropriately named Chief Editor, surmising:  “With a name like that and at odds of 3/1, The Moodie Tipster believes this classy gelding to be the surest thing since we backed the All Blacks to win the last Rugby World Cup. Which means it will probably choke half way down the finishing straight… ”

Chief Editor duly hit its race deadline and won easily. On Sunday at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby in Ireland, the Moodie Tipster was at it again.  Highlighting the merits of the eventual winner, Fame and Glory [pictured below], he wrote: “Few will head this classy colt who has won four out of his five starts. Fame and glory has been synonymous with Dubai Duty Free over the past quarter century and it certainly beckons for the Aidan O’Brien-trained star.”

Several readers followed the tip and two of them - Aer Rianta International’s John Kilmartin and Iñaki Arteaga from Philip Morris Spain - now have the chance to win a million Dollars and a luxury car respectively.

So there you have it. Times may be tough but there are still opportunities out there. With advertising revenues under pressure, The Moodie Report’s plunge into the world of gambling looks like a sure-fire diversification bet. And what were the odds on that?

The Kildare Hotel & Golf Club - better known as The K Club - must be one of the most beautiful hotels on the planet.

Set in some 550 acres of woodland and parkland, including its own private stretch of the River Liffey, this is a place of rare and pristine beauty.

Last night Dubai Duty Free, sponsor of the Irish Derby, hosted the pre-Derby ball, which raised a goodly sum for a local charity. Guests walked through the beautiful hotel grounds, across a footbridge, on the way to dinner. The tranquility was something to behold.

As always, Dubai Duty Free have organised these few days impeccably but with their trademark relaxed hospitality. The K Club is a great place to regenerate the spirit. One of those places to see - and stay in - before you die.

PICTURE GALLERY

A look back towards the magnificent Straffan House.

The Moodie Report Publisher enjoys the lovely surrounds of The K Club

Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free, and his wife Breeda pose for a picture in front of Straffan House.

Dubai Duty Free’s hard-working marketing team Anna Khan (left) and Christine Feliciano

(From left) Bruce McGuire, Scorpio Distributors; Salah Hussein Tahlak, Dubai Duty Free; Mark Riches, WDF; Martin Moodie, The Moodie Report

Salah Hussein Tahlak

Dublin Airport has been turned into an enclave of Dubai in anticipation of Sunday’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby.

When The Moodie Report arrived in Dublin on Friday, we, like all passengers, were met by a sea of red. Dubai Duty Free signs were all around the arrivals hall, from the baggage area to the doors leading to the meeting area.

Make no mistake, Dubai Duty Free’s association with one of the world’s biggest horse races is a major sponsorship. And it’s determined to get full value from it - not only at Dublin Airport but with intense global publicity from the big race itself on Sunday.

Things up warming up nicely with a Dubai Duty Free-sponsored pre-Derby golf tournament at The Kildare Hotel, Spa, & Country Club - better known as The K Club, host to The Ryder Cup in 2006 - on Friday, and the Derby Ball held last night.

The big race takes place in a few hours. Disappointingly the favourite, Sea the Stars, has been withdrawn due to the soft ground but there’s still a class field in place. The Moodie Report’s Tipster competition, offering a couple of great prizes from Dubai Duty Free, has drawn plenty of interest. We like Mourayan (from the same stable as Sea the Stars), trained by John Oxx. Followers of the Chinese zodiac will note that 2009 is the Year of the Ox…

But watch out also for Gan Amhras, which means ‘without doubt’ in Gaelic. Doubt is something that Dubai Duty Free has never had in its 25-year success story, but then again the retailer has also had its share of Fame & Glory, the name of the most hotly fancied runner today.

And so we’re off again…

Following the fantastic success of the first travel retail industry ‘Miles for Smiles’ fund-raising run in Dubai late last year, the event will be repeated on 21 November at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

For the uninitated, Miles for Smiles is divided into two events, 10k and 5k, allowing participants to run (or walk) as quickly or as slowly as they desire.

The sole requirement, in fact, is a desire to help raise funds for The Smile Train - the world’s leading cleft charity and a cause that has received tremendous support from the travel retail industry over the past three years.

Wisely, I think, this year’s fund-raising approach will differ from the individual sponsorship path of 2008. Instead, runners will be asked to pay an entrance fee of €100, and donors will be able to sponsor the whole field rather than having to choose between runners.

The sponsorship target is a more modest US$150,000 (last year reached US$260,000), due to the troubled economic environment. Already the fund-raising has begun - please visit http://www.smiletrain.org/goto/milesforsmiles09 to add your contribution.

If you would like to enter, please contact Rowena Holland at row@essentialcommunications.org; or to sponsor the event and help offset costs please contact Mandy Shine at Mandy.Shine@TheMoodieReport.com

Already The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retailing Worldwide has signed up as the Platinum Sponsor. Its President, Olivier Bottrie (below), who clocked a stunning 44 minutes and 7 seconds time to win the event last year (and who raised an amazing US$50,000 in sponsorship), won’t be able to take part in 2009, but has underlined his support for the division’s official charity in the most emphatic way.

A 21 November deadline means (alas) that it’s almost time to get training again. Last year, despite crossing the finishing line looking like a man who had an imminent date with a respirator, I managed to clock just under 50 minutes (yes for the 10k not the 5k…).

This year the aim is to shave three minutes off that time and beat 47 minutes. This may therefore be my last Blog written late at night with the assistance of some nice Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Or then again, it might not…

Whatever the training diet, ‘Mission 47′  (perhaps better dubbed ‘Mission Impossible’), like Miles for Smiles 2009, is now formally underway.

Anyone interested in the evolution of airport terminal buildings should jump on the next flight to Barcelona El Prat Airport’s new Terminal 1.

The Catalan airport has long been a favourite of many people I respect highly in this business but the new terminal represents a whole new quality dimension.

I have seen many splendid new terminals in recent years – Heathrow T5, Changi T3, Beijing T3, for example. T1 at El Prat is right up there with them.

It features a gloriously seductive roof, shaped like a soft, undulating wave. Natural light pours into the terminal from the long strands of skylights in the ceiling and the glass panel surrounds.

The central Sky Plaza, which features much of the extensive commercial offer, is one of the nicest areas I have seen in any airport anywhere. There is a tremendous – but not cavernous – sense of space and a relaxed ambience that I have never seen in an airport environment.

How many airports around the world truly feel as if they are an absolutely appropriate gateway for a particular city or region? Terminal 1 does. It’s modernist – as one would expect from a city that gave us the genius of Gaudi; it’s bright, as befitting its Mediterranean location; and it’s a nice mix of the cultural and the commercial, just as Barcelona is.

Inevitably when I tour new airports it’s a case of noting what you can while rushing around often vast spaces. But on this occasion the impressions were more than superficial. The atmosphere of T1 stays with you long after you have gone. And isn’t that what the travel experience – which an airport should be part of and so often isn’t, other than in a negative sense – should be all about?

One of the glaring deficiencies in many airport retail offers is the lack of attention given to destination products - creating a strong Sense of Place not only in design but also in how the shelves are stocked helps, we believe, deliver a point of difference, one that consumers are more likely to respond to.

One retailer aiming to redress that balance is The Nuance Group (Malta), which has not only opened a 140sq m destination store  at Malta Airport’s new terminal - but is also devoting serious space inside its main core category outlet to the best local products.

The retailer believes that destination items can induce similar spending on impulse as, say, confectionery. Position a high-quality local offer close to the tills, ensure it is well merchandised and displayed, and travellers coming to the end of their holidays will flock to it.

We think it’s an approach worth championing. Take the space devoted to Cordina, a high-class local range of food and wines.

Nuance has given the brand its own display (above) right in the heart of its walk-through store, close to the high-end chocolates section - and the brand has responded by providing its own sales ambassador - a rare example of destination retailing using a brand consultant.

It’s an approach based on volume rather than margin - not a guaranteed winner with 1.5 million departing passengers a year by any means - yet consumers appear to be responding with their wallets. Destination items can work, insists Nuance - and it set to reinforce that attitude shortly by replacing some of its traditional international wine offer with more Maltese products - aimed at showcasing the island’s excellent, though relatively undersold wine industry.

We think this is an investment - and a retailing attitude - that is daring and imaginative - and one that richly deserves to succeed.

“I can’t tell you I can turn a 90-year old woman into a 30-year old woman today, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t trying or that it might never happen. It’s still a goal that we won’t give up on.”

The words are those of Dr Dan Yarosh, the impressively titled Senior Vice President, Research & Development, Basic Science Research, at The Estée Lauder Companies.

Dr Yarosh joined the US beauty group in 2008, and is charged with applying his expertise in molecular biology and DNA repair to create further innovative skincare technologies.

Dr Yarosh already does some great work. But can you imagine the surge in footfall into duty free stores if he could only deliver on his aspiration?

Can you imagine how many young suitors rich 90-year-olds would attract? In fact they would become the most desirable women on the planet.  All that wisdom, all those pensions! And the ability to turn into 30 year-olds for the wedding night.

Make no mistake - if travel retail could secure the exclusive rights to the 90/30 line, the channel’s troubles would be over, forever.

So keep up the good work Dr Yarosh.  Travel retail needs you. I shall monitor your progess closely. But first I’m off to look for a woman. There’s only one criteria. She has to be old enough to be my grandmother.

I am looking forward to hearing the case for the defence from those charged with ground theft at London Heathrow Airport, following a series of police raids last month.

As we reported, the raids followed an investigation by UK inflight sales security consultant STI – Airline Sales & Services Limited* into ground theft from aircraft at London Heathrow Airport.

The company’s new mobile Airside Surveillance Unit allows aircraft on remote stands to be monitored. STI Director Paul Lacy told The Moodie Report that eight individuals who had access to aircraft had been arrested.

Some £15,000 of stock was seized by police in late May, along with airline equipment that included, wait for it, a full duty free cart.

Theft of all kinds is a big problem for the inflight duty free industry. Theft on the ground; theft by some (fortunately not many) cabin crew; and theft by consumers (credit card fraud).

So all efforts to crack down on illegal practices should be applauded and Paul Lacy’s company is doing an outstanding job.

But the incident does beg the question, how did a full duty free cart get into private hands? (Paul Lacy confirmed to me that a full duty free cart was taken from an aircraft onto a high-load vehicle and through an airside-to-landside security post).

Whatever the answer - and it must pose serious doubts about the level of security at London Heathrow Airport - whoever had the cart will need one of the more creative lawyers of our time to argue his or her way out of a lengthy jail sentence.

* For details, contact Paul K. Lacy, Director, STI – Airline Sales & Services Limited, on e-mail at info@dutyfreesecurity.com or visit www.dutyfreesecurity.com

If anyone doubts the devastating impact of slow, stringent security on footfall and penetration in our channel, take a look at the picture below. It’s the scene at Brussels International Airport last Saturday, 6 June, at around 9am. The passengers you see in the foreground are still around 10-15 minutes from reaching the security point, but they’ve already been waiting - as have I at this point - for around 30-35 minutes in one of the longest queues I’ve seen at a European airport since late 2006 - when the LAGs regulations on aviation security were drafted in.

It’s not as easy to see in the image, but the queue snakes back around the concourse, past virtually all of the nice shop fronts that retailers have spent heavily investing in - underneath the escalators towards the back of the shopping zone - and winds its way back towards security once more.

Like others I met in the queue, my plans to shop for my wife and children went straight out the window at the demoralising sight of the long line of people - even with plenty of time to spare, getting through those barriers became the only goal.

Over the course of 50-plus minutes, we edged past virtually empty stores - with the occasional shopper inside glancing despperately at the lengthening line outside.  

I have no idea if any - or how many - passengers missed flights because of the long waiting times - but I do know there were many lost sales that day.

A little depressingly, I’m not sure what else the airport can do in the short term here at Pier B. All of the X-ray machines were open and fully staffed - there simply were not enough machines to handle the volumes coming through.

Purely from a passenger’s point of view, widening the security zone or moving it to the pre-retail area - at no little cost - would appear to be the obvious solutions. But until that happens, Brussels Pier B pre-security will continue to be a wasteland for retail on a Saturday morning.