The Joseph Ribkoff team, including Nadine Clour, second from left, and Stephen Belfer, second from right, at TFWA APEC.

Canadian womenswear brand Joseph Ribkoff used its return to the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference in Singapore to highlight its growing ambitions in global travel retail, following strong early results from its first airport pop-ups.

Speaking to TRBusiness at the show, Nadine Clour, VP of Global Sales and Business Development, and Stephen Belfer, CEO and President, said the brand, which was founded in Montreal 69 years ago and is distributed in more than 62 countries, is building on a long-standing cruise retail presence as it accelerates its move into airports.

“Our presence in travel retail has mainly been in the cruise ship industry, but within the last year we have started to embark on our journey into airports,” said Clour. “From our first experience at TFWA last year we were able to open two pop-up locations – one in Cairns and one in Auckland – offering a wide variety of options for travellers passing through the airport space.”

The Cairns Airport opening in particular helped validate the potential for Joseph Ribkoff in the channel, while its more recent opening at Auckland International Airport in March 2026 has delivered encouraging early results. “We are seeing a lot of success through the product, and so far the results have been very positive,” said Clour. “We have seen 30% conversion in our Auckland pop-up, with basket sizes of two to three pieces on average, up to seven, which is quite spectacular in an airport environment.”

Joseph Ribkoff’s travel retail-ready proposition centres on easy-care, wrinkle-resistant fabrics, versatile day-to-night styling and inclusive sizing from XS to XXL. In fact, Belfer said the comfort and versatility of the collections have even led to customers wearing purchases immediately after buying them. “We are seeing an increasing number of people who wear their clothes straight out of the shop and onto the plane as they are that comfortable,” he explained. “We end up wrapping their clothes up for them instead.”

For Joseph Ribkoff, the move into airports is not only a commercial opportunity, but also a way to raise awareness of the brand among international consumers. “Expanding in travel retail gives us even more opportunity to tell our story to the end consumer, so that is really exciting,” said Belfer. “It is part of our new strategy to really get our name out there, and no longer be the quiet brand that we have been for the last 69 years.”

The brand showcased its latest travel retail-ready collections at this year’s TFWA exhibition.

At TFWA Asia Pacific, the brand showcased its latest travel retail-ready collections, including styles designed to appeal to fashion-conscious travellers in airport and cruise environments. The brand has also identified clear product trends across its early airport locations, with Moto jackets emerging as standout bestsellers.

Asia Pacific is now viewed as an important opportunity for Joseph Ribkoff, both as a travel retail market and as a potential gateway into broader domestic wholesale growth. “The Asia region is a very interesting one for us as a brand,” said Clour. “We haven’t really touched the surface yet, and I think travel retail could be a really good first step into both the airport spaces and domestic wholesale.

“We are seeing the Asian traveller come through our airport spaces a lot, so there is definitely an interest, and we would love to see how we can expand on that in the region.”

Joseph Ribkoff has recently opened two airport pop-ups – one in Cairns and one in Auckland.

The company is already in discussions with another airport, which it hopes could materialise in the coming months, although further details were not disclosed at the show. Belfer added that Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, China and the Middle East are all markets of interest for the brand as it looks to build its travel retail footprint while, beyond Asia Pacific, Joseph Ribkoff is also looking at opportunities in Europe, where it already has a strong domestic presence. “There are so many exciting opportunities for us, and we really believe in the airport environment,” he said.

As the brand expands in travel retail, both Clour and Belfer stressed the importance of staff training and storytelling in converting travellers within the short airport shopping window. “While it’s important that we capture the travellers’ attention, we also need to make sure that the storytelling is there,” said Clour. “In order for that to happen, we need to make sure our staff is trained properly. All our team know the brand story, where we originate from, how long we have been in business, who the customer is and why they love the brand. We have such a small window to capture them, so this is really important.”

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