Gebr. Heinemann’s Raoul Spanger, Co-Chief Executive Officer; Inken Callsen, Chief Commercial Officer; and Max Heinemann, Owner and Co-Chief Executive Officer, unpacked the 2025 results.

Against a global backdrop of geopolitical tensions, economic volatility and shifting consumer behaviour, Gebr. Heinemann closed the 2025 financial year with a consolidated group turnover of €4.7 billion, marking a record result for the company and increase of 10% compared to the previous year.

The family-owned global retailer and distributor shared an in-depth insight into its 2025 results to travel retail trade media at its Hamburg-headquarters yesterday (5 May), with TRBusiness in attendance.

Growth was supported by almost all sales channels, with airport retail remaining the company’s core channel, delivering 72% of total turnover. This was followed by border shops (7%), cruises and ferries (7%), domestic distribution (6%) and airlines (3%).

From a regional perspective, Europe continued to be the largest region, accounting for 52% of turnover. Notably, Turkey and the Middle East Africa region increased their share to 36% – effectively emerging as the strongest growth drivers for the year.

Owner and Co-Chief Executive Officer Max Heinemann began by referencing the evolving situation in the Middle East, explaining how, from a global perspective, the company takes a holistic view of how the world is moving forward and how this relates to travel retail.

“Volatility has become our baseline; planning cycles are repeatedly interrupted, and too often we find ourselves switching back into crisis mode instead of tackling the structural changes reshaping our industry,” he said. “That is why it is crucial that we not only react to each disruption but also prepare for the traveller of tomorrow.”

The company noted that while there are various uncertainties to navigate, the fundamentals of travel remain strong.

On the enduring appetite to travel, he said: “This gives us an always very healthy humbleness of an industry that can talk about future growth maybe for the next 30-40 years, without doubt.”

Furthermore, he highlighted the “responsibility to flip that growth into commercial experience and profit” – something he described as a shared responsibility that ‘needs and requires’ shared answers. “In that sense, the industry must evolve together,” he stressed.

Financial highlights of Gebr. Heinrmann’s Annual Business & Sustainability Report 2025.

Providing further context for the results, Raoul Spanger, Co-Chief Executive Officer, underscored that 2025 was “a year that demanded focus and adaptability”.

“Amid ongoing challenges, we achieved broadly based growth across regions and channels,” he said. “This confirms the strength of our diversified business model and our ability to act with discipline while continuing to invest in the future.”

He relayed that the Middle East Africa will remain an important priority for the company. “Despite the significant instability affecting parts of the region, the fundamentals that make it relevant for global travel are still intact,” he said.

In the Asia Pacific region, which accounted for 9% of turnover, the company renegotiated contracts with airports which, says Gebr. Heinemann, led to a ‘significant improvement in results and reinforced the growth perspective with airport partners’.

The Americas – which is now focused on cruise – contributed 3% of group turnover, buoyed by renegotiated contracts with airport, which ‘reinforced the growth perspective with airport partners’.

Change and transformation

A key sentiment shining through the conversations was that change and transformation is ‘essentially needed’ for the travel retail industry.

Raoul Spanger, Co-Chief Executive Officer; Inken Callsen, Chief Commercial Officer; and Max Heinemann, Owner and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Gebr. Heinemann.

“Across the industry we feel that expectations of travellers are shifting profoundly and clearly irreversibly,” said Max Heinemann. “For decades, the sector has evolved around a relatively stable understanding of the traveller in general. I think there were predictable flows, familiar expectations and well-known shopping behaviours that somewhat defined the travel retail idea and today that certainty is gone. Holding onto it is probably the fundamental mistake that anyone can do.”

He went on to say that the concept of duty-free has been challenged with a new generation of travellers bringing new mindsets, cultural expectations and fundamentally different relationships to travel. All of this, he believes, is giving rise to demand for clarity, calm, seamlessness and meaningful experiences. What’s more, there is no one-size-fits-all solution – the answer depends on each individual airport in terms of what they are and how best to cater to their travellers.

“The generation shift is the single most powerful driver of change in our industry and it forces us to rethink how we design experiences, how we use data and how we collaborate on that sense across different channels and stakeholders and how we define, essentially, value,” he summarised.

A look at key figures from the Gebr. Heinemann Annual Business & Sustainability Report 2025.

He underscored how Gebr. Heinemann takes a long-term view, with a wide and flexible range of cooperation models – such as concession contract to master concession, joint venture and profit share, for example – and with data ecosystems coupled with a clear strategy of how to utilise that data most effectively, feeding into this. He also hinted at an update to the loyalty programme this by this time next year. While it remains to be seen exactly how this will take shape, it was hinted it may take a more global view.

“If we look at the next few years, the ambition for our sector should be incredibly clear – the make travel retail and by all means duty-free, travel value, etc, much more relevant, more emotional, more frictionless and more reflective of what the traveller actually needs,” he said. This, he posited, requires a “shared responsibility for pricing and competitiveness”, “flexible commercial frameworks that enable us to test and learn”, and “better use of data across the ecosystems to understand behaviours and personalise the journeys” and the “co-creation of experiences”.

“The commercial model must serve the traveller and not the other way around,” he said. “Change is insanely difficult, but it’s amazing at the same time to be challenged by the need for change.

Retail and distribution pillars

Circling back to the results shows that the top five performing airport locations were Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Oslo, Antalya and Frankfurt, in that order.

Leftt: TRBusiness’ Faye Bartle outside the Hamburg Headquarters. Right: TGebr. Heinemann’s Annual Business & Sustainability Report 2025.

The distribution business was described as having played a stabilising role. New business and extended partnerships included Fjord Line, Brittany Ferries, Norwegian Cruise Line, Zaragoza Airport in Spain, and British Airways.

At the same time, the retail business benefited from new and expanded locations, such as Keflavík Airport in Iceland, Antalya Airport in Turkey, King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, the Plaza Petea border shop in Romania, as well as further expansion in the cruise segment.

Looking at categories, Liquor, Tobacco and Confectionery (LTC) accounted for 45% of turnover  up by 8% in comparison to the previous year. Within LTC, Tobacco & Nicotine continued to play an important role by ‘drawing customers into stores and increasing basket size, underpinned by strong performance across both traditional products and next-generation alternatives’.

Confectionery remained a ‘highly relevant impulse category’, benefiting, for example, from gifting occasions, while at the same time facing ‘considerable pressure on pricing’.

Beauty generated a 41% share of turnover, representing a hike of 7% compared to 2024. Within the category, niche fragrances are further cementing their role as a key driver of premiumisation, said the retailer, supported by curated assortments, exclusive concepts and strong traveller demand for individuality and storytelling. Alongside this, travel retail sets and special and base-price offers are developing at the same pace as the luxury niche segment.

Fashion, Accessories accounted for 7% of turnover and grew by 13% (including Istanbul) compared to the previous year. The results show that that category played a notable role for new locations like Jeddah and Antalya. Additionally, the company’s monobrand boutiques at Istanbul Airport continued their strong performance.

At the Gebr. Heinemann annual press conference for the release of the Annual Business & Sustainability Report 2025.

As a subcategory, Toys saw significant growth, driven by increasing appeal among shoppers of all ages, as well as by larger spaces and dedicated shop-in-shop concepts that created a more emotional, experience-driven positioning. Sunglasses are also seeing steady development, with retail growth of an impressive 14.8% compared to the previous year.

“Business is moving farther away from Hamburg,” said Spanger, reflecting on the figures. “This is in effect because growth in Germany is not given and growth in Europe is limited. Growth in other regions will be more substantial. And this will have an effect on our global organisation and supply chain.”

He also referenced the significance of the upcoming Noida International Airport project, mentioning how the flow of aircraft on order to the country makes it an undeniably desirable market.

On Australia, he added: “We had very intense and tough negotiation with Sydney Airport. We have to face a new reality which is based on much less [fewer] Chinese customers also spending much less, so it’s a different profile. We agreed on a good formula and a good compromise for the future and this is important because even if Asia is reshaping, or the market is reshaping, we will clearly stay in Asia and will see part of our future in Asia.”

Spanger also mentioned that while the company’s 10% growth in turnover is positive, the reality is that spend per passenger (SPP) is under pressure.

“The 10% mainly results from new business actually – we have to face that fact,” he reasoned. “We have to face it as an industry, not only as Heinemann.”

A snapshot of sustainability progress from the Gebr. Heinrmann Annual Business & Sustainability Report 2025.

Making a direct link to concessions contracts, he pointed out: “Concession fee and percentage have to go down. Prices have to go down. Airport revenue and income can still grow. [But] if we don’t offer better prices to our consumers globally we will really have a problem in our industry because this young generation is better informed, more informed and more critical, actually – and we need to ‘get’ them. Let this be a message to all of us.”

From purchasing to commercial

Across all categories, Gebr. Heinemann continued to refine its assortment strategy and is implementing the results of its global Assortment Steering and Efficiency project, which was first announced in 2025. This has given rise to clearer processes and digital tools, such as an assortment engine for continuous optimisation.

Jeddah is a key location in Gebr. Heinemann’s MEA network.

“Our ambition is to focus on curated assortments, strong brands, travel retail exclusives, and clear value propositions, all supported by data-driven pricing and close collaboration with our partners,” said Inken Callsen, Chief Commercial Officer of Gebr. Heinemann. “Always with the goal to turn data and insights into impact, thereby creating more relevant offers for the traveller.”

The learnings so far from this is has sparked a ‘totally different’ business approach, as Callsen described: “We have to have a market strategy which is relevant for the customer and the marketplace – and we have to combine that with the right category strategy. This cannot be an overall strategy. It has to be a sub-category strategy because every category has to play kind of a different role to attract the customer.”

In effect, the company is restructuring its purchasing team into a commercial team to have a global approach, yet with a category-precise answer for each and every market. All of this is being powered by technology.

“We are about to roll out an Assortment Engine and Price Engine which combines and gives us all the insight and helps us to give the right proposal for each and every store,” she explained. “Still, luckily, there needs to be this human touch and we will not only rely on data – even though the more we work on AI we have to have a very bright mind to see that we still take the right decisions.”

Fundamentally, it’s all about turning data into action, and how this is specifically actioned across different doors.

In more news, the company is set to open its new logistics hub in Istanbul next year, which is set to significantly shorten replenishment times for markets like Turkey and the Middle East.

Invited guests at Gebr. Heinemann’s Hamburg HQ.

Callsen dug deeper into category dynamics, mentioning how premium celebrity brands and, in contrast, base-price spirits, is driving Liquor category growth. Champagne is also “very much” in demand while Prosecco is a high-performing ‘grab and go’ item.

She also singled out tobacco as another growth category, adding: “Istanbul helps us to make a lot of growth as it’s an important airport for tobacco. But the NGPs pay a major role and will play an even further role [moving forward].

“An interesting fact is that we have +7% female shoppers on NGP, so obviously it talks to women as well.”

Additionally, confectionery and its sub-categories are playing a “major role in the future”. Snacking is feeding into this, with gifting and travel exclusive items also powering shopper spend in the category.

The 12,000 sqm marketplace at Terminal 2 at Antalya International Airport combines International brands with local identity and innovative concepts.

In Beauty, which this year is no longer experiencing double-digit growth, she explained that 16% of the turnover is now being achieved by base-price products.

“We have to play on luxurious premiumisation and we have to play on entry price for sure,” she commented.

Callsen praised the impact that new brands, as well as those that are a hit on social media, can make.

“Basically, relevance drives performance,” she summarised. “We have to have a relevant assortment for each and every airport – sometimes for each terminal in an airport with different assortments, prices and promotions. So it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution anymore.”

Focused growth in a changing industry

Looking ahead to the second half of 2026, Gebr. Heinemann stated that it will focus on ‘sharpening operational excellence, expanding in high-potential markets and further strengthening long-term partnerships across the value chain’.

The shopping experience in Keflavík is characterised by a strong sense of place and a significant presence of local brands. 

Building on globally scalable processes, the company aims to bring assortment and pricing strategies to full impact and to intensify collaboration with suppliers to deliver distinctive experiences for travellers.

“The industry is changing structurally,” concluded Max Heinemann. “Success will depend on relevance for travellers, resilient business models, and partnerships built on trust. We are confident that our long-term mindset and diversified setup position us well to actively shape the future of travel retail.”

More coverage of Gebr. Heinemann’s annual press conference to follow.

READ NEXT: ON LOCATION: Frankfurt’s art‑led Terminal 3 opens with big retail and F&B push

READ NEXT: Heinemann Americas: Cruise sector defined by ‘scale, innovation & rising guest expectations’

READ NEXT: Gebr. Heinemann names Rajshree Dugar as new Asia Pacific CEO