TRBusiness talks to Eugenio Andrades, CEO UK & Northern Europe, Dufry, about the launch of a six-week programme of activations at Gatwick Airport linked to the release (15 December) of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

 

Eugenio Andrades talks about the important partnerships struck with Gatwick, Disney and important supplier partners such as Lego for the six-week programme of events and how the retailer plans to fully leverage its opportunity to connect with travellers at all points along their journeys.

 

Andrades maintains that the focus of this initiative was not purely sales motivated, but more about ‘giving something back’ to travellers, especially over the Christmas period. WDF/Dufry also believes that the events in store will greatly help improve penetration levels and elevate the customer experience.

 

“You know we do actually do activations with most of our key partners,” says Andrades. “Obviously Gatwick is one of our key partners worldwide and also within the UK and I would say that there are a couple of reasons why they were quite important to this activation.”

 

He also answers a question about the effects of Brexit on Dufry’s business in the UK – following the weakening of the pound sterling.

 

“As you can see from the recent nine-month results, Brexit has actually been good for us. People are finding more value from what they buy here so we have more international people flying and people are spending more. Even for the UK travellers they find it more attractive to buy here, so sales numbers are doing very well and actually our future prospects remain very good.”