Nick Ziebland, Retail Strategy Director/Retail Director T5, BAA Ltd kicked off the second day of the ACI Conference in Monaco today with a case study of Heathrow Terminal 5, revealing a new retail approach from

the airports' company.

While the previous day had consisted of a pretty tough day related to security issues, he said was here to inject some optimism into proceedings.

Ziebland said that T5 will be capable of handling nearly 30m passengers a year, making the terminal itself equivalent in size to some other European airports. All of British Airways' passengers will use it, complete with 150 check-in desks and 22,000sq m of retail space when it opens a year from now.

Significantly, he said that this is the first BAA terminal to be built with retail in mind from the very beginning and the first chance to put into practice all of the previous lessons learned and not just in the area of retail.
He said T5 is mainly about retail and design done differently. He said glamour by association with famous retail names would only deliver the customer experience to a point.

He described the ‘breakthrough difference’ in the retail sense with T5 as BAA's decision not to have retail in the passengers' faces as the first thing they see after security – even though retail remains very visible. He said the overriding priority was to create a terminal building that makes people feel good about being there and this has been based on solid passenger research.

He said the current stock phrase is ‘Come early and tell your friends…’ but added that since time is passengers' most precious commodity, only those prepared to give their time will give BAA the chance to convert them into shoppers.

Ziebland said that BAA wants to reintroduce the joy of travel and a number of differences in approach. For example, it has asked all of its retailers to incorporate the following elements in their proposals: surprise, satisfy, simplify, tempt and respect and also rationalise how they will express these elements.

Simply replicating High Street chic is not enough, said Ziebland, who said he was pleased that every single retailer has responded to BAA's five points by offering something different. He cited several examples, including Mulberry who will sell unique products in T5; Tie Rack has come up with a new design; and Paul Smith has a different store design for T5, amongst other examples.

But while all the theory and the artist's impressions are one thing, Ziebland said it was time to turn this into reality and the operational nuts and bolts were just as important. From this week (starting last Monday) he said he was pleased to see the first retailer move in for its fit out in World Duty Free. Ziebland said this fitting out process will now continue until December 2007 for all others and anything less than a spectacular result will not do.

Right now he said BAA often feels that the retail experience is at the opposite end of that spectrum, but he added that it was his hope that the security inconveniences endured by passengers today will be solved by T5's on time opening date of March 30 2008.

By then he says more than 100 members of the BAA retail team will have played their part in putting the whole offer together.

He said customers will have some great views over the city of London 15 miles away and T5 will be an iconic landmark. Currently, penetration at BAA shops across its Heathrow terminals is running at about 35% to 40% he said, but that alone is not going to take the business to the next level.

The proof will be in the offer that is finally opened and the customers' reactions to it and the overall experience, he concluded in his presentation.Ziebland then joined a panel of presenters where he was asked by PPS Publications? John Frank Keyes by how much BAA hoped to increase its customer retail penetration over and above the aforementioned 35% to 40%.

While he said he wasn?t quite ready to share that exact information, he did acknowledge that BAA is anticipating income per passenger will be higher than Heathrow?s other terminals, through a mix of penetration and spend.

He also said that the planning process for all of the shops had to be flexible and some concepts may simply not work. In the interests of increased security requirements he added that BAA had already had to remove one shop from its planning before it has even started trading.

Ziebland?s comments come against the background of earlier news that BAA has already unveiled some of the food and beverage operators that have signed up to T5.

These include Apostrophe, a boulangerie-patisserie operation; coffee chains Starbucks and Caff? Nero; sandwich chain Eat; and Krispy Kreme doughnuts and cakes.

Gordon Ramsay and Caviar House & Prunier have already signed restaurant deals at T5 and the Arora company has signed an agreement to run a hotel at Terminal 5.