Hamburg-based duty free retailer and wholesaler Gebr. Heinemann says the $3bn giant is determined to recruit more high quality management to its senior ranks to help take the company to the next major level.

 

As a result, it has launched a major senior recruitment campaign, which is not only coincidentally timed to benefit from the long chain of successive industry mergers, but deliberately aimed at attracting quality management that may already be available or come onto the market, at a time when the German retailer’s own business is growing extremely fast.

 

For example, Heinemann took an active role in no less than 19 DF&TR bids last year, representing some 23% of all the retail tenders it has taken part in over the last decade – a grand total of 83. The retailer won many of these contracts, in addition to those already secured in 2012-2013 and now has established footholds in all five continents.

 

As a mark of how serious it is, Heinemann also points to investment levels of €100m ($110.6m) last year, plus another €130m ($143.8m) planned for this year (2015), as it looks to consolidate and build its business.

 

 

The retailer says it is also acting quickly, since the need for more quality human resources at senior management level across the world is becoming ever more demanding.

 

Raoul Spanger, Executive Director, Gebr. Heinemann told TRBusiness: “…as we all know, there is also this merger and acquisitions area where there are maybe some very motivated people who are out of jobs, or insecure about what will happen in the future. We want to make sure that they have a clear message from Heinemann that we are interested…”

 

He added that this is the first time that the company’s business has required such a focused and completely different approach to recruitment, because it has simply become more international. As a result, this has created the need for internationally experienced, talented and highly motivated people.

 

“We actually need characters and if you see the content of our campaign you will identify that this is not around a lot of people, but a few who really fit and really believe they bring added value,” said Spanger.

 

Such potential recruits must also be ‘pioneers’ and ‘not followers’, he says, referring to the recurring theme of the campaign and especially if they want to join ‘the strongest and most successful family in the industry’.

 

 

Those who have worked in the industry for a reasonable period of time will, of course, be familiar with Heinemann’s business as a well-established top five global duty free retail operator, with a powerful wholesale division. The company supplies international airports, airlines, cruiselines and border shops in 100-plus countries, while the retail side serves another estimated 30m customers a year.

 

Besides looking to the future, the sheer weight of the aforementioned new business won over the last few years by the company is also a big issue, along with the additional demands on management resource that huge new confirmed projects in the pipeline will place on the business.

 

New business won by the company obviously includes Sydney Airport in Australia; Turin (Italy); Sharm El Sheikh (Egypt); Tunis, Djerba, Sfax, Tabarka and Tozeur (Tunisia); St Petersburg Pulkovo, Novosibirsk and Samara airports (Russia); Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja (Nigeria); and Salahah Airport in Oman.

 

This is in addition to the already established businesses at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur Airport, the Singapore Cruise Centre and Surabaya Airport in Indonesia. The retailer is also waiting patiently to see whether it has been successful in its bid for the new Midfield Terminal complex at Abu Dhabi International Airport, where the result is due out this autumn.

 

It has similarly bid for the Oman Airports Management Company duty free contract at the $1.8bn New Muscat International Airport, which opens next year. (Heinemann already holds the Salahah Airport duty free contract in Oman).

 

 

In addition, two of the pillars of the company’s business continue to be the airports of Oslo Gardermoen (Travel Retail Norway) and Istanbul (Unifree Duty Free) with its partners and perhaps the biggest challenge of all is its relatively new contract win to operate all 53,000sq m of retail space at the Istanbul New Airport operated by iGA Group.

 

With a 25-year tenure beginning in 2018 (when the new airport opens) this contract win has been described as ‘the greatest single success in the company’s history’.

 

Both represent long-term concessions and while expansion continues to be a priority, Spanger says this will never be at any cost and in this respect Heinemann’s business model remains unchanged.

 

He said: “Of course, we have now gained some substantial business and the new airport in Turkey is a huge project where we are investing a lot of time and a lot of money, but this is also part of the reason why we are launching this recruitment campaign.”

 

The company is now advertising itself like never before, with the tag line: ‘Make the change happen with us’ and is inviting any interested parties to contact it directly at: http://www.gebr-heinemann.de/en/career

 

A major interview, profiling the company’s expansion in recent years, plus its philosophy and new business gains is published in this month’s September 2015 edition of TRBusiness magazine. To obtain a subscription, please email:  [email protected]