Dag Rasmussen Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lagardère Services told TRBusiness that we can expect the company to potentially complete numerous acquisitions in 2015 as well as the integration of ‘new activities’ from 2014.

 

In the TRBusiness Annual Survey [to be published in the January 2015 issue of TRBusiness magazine], Rasmussen told TRBusiness that growth momentum remained favourable in 2014 with a ‘good traffic dynamic’, however, many external factors negatively impacted the business, such as the sluggish European economy.

 

“Exchange rate fluctuations (devaluation of the Rouble, the Real and the Yen) affected the business in Europe,” said Rasmussen. “On the other side, the depreciation of the Euro compared to the US dollar partly compensated.

 

“Tougher rules (anti-gifting regulations in China, tobacco regulations in the Pacific and Europe) also presented problems.”

 

Rasmussen says he anticipates the continued growth of traffic in 2015 with more or less the same environment as in 2014 and expects no major difference concerning existing trends in exchange rates, regulations and airline developments.

 

However, what we can expect is for the company to grow and change in 2015 with the possibility of numerous acquisitions. When asked what Lagardère Services is looking forward to seeing happen most in the business in 2015 he said: “The integration of new activities coming from 2014; acquisitions and an ambitious projects pipeline in our different business divisions.”

 

He also mentioned that he would like to see LS Travel Retail maintain a higher SPP growth than the industry, with “faultless quality of service and a sufficient margin level to make our investments profitable”.

 

Lagardère Services saw vigorous growth in Asia and the Pacific in 2014 while Europe as a whole was a greater challenge towards year-end with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine affecting several of its operations.

 

He predicted that in 2015 Asia would continue to grow faster than other regions and the Middle East/Africa would do well as a result of the development of huge airport platforms. And although Europe presents its problems Rasmussen still believes the region is a big market with ‘permanent touristic attractiveness’.

 

Rasmussen hopes for some changes to occur in the industry in 2015, one being the evolution of tender processes with more transparency and consideration of quality and innovation.

 

He also said he wants to see a change in the environment to support the development of arrival duty free in the European Union.

 

His third wish for the industry was that it could work on enhancing co-operative relationships between airports, airlines, brands and retailers; something which was mentioned by many in the TRBusiness Annual Survey.

 

For more from Dag Rasmussen and other top 10 retailers read the January issue of TRBusiness magazine.