Groupe ADP’s Chief Retail Officer, Aude Ferrand has told TRBusiness that the company expects to announce its Paris airports JV retail partner in mid-July, as Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport prepares for the unveiling of the first ‘full’ Extime concept at the new Terminal 1, opening in December of this year.

 

An unexpected tender announcement was made by Groupe ADP in November 2021, for Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Le Bourget airports. At the time, Ferrand, confirmed to TRBusiness that the company would be seeking a partner to acquire a 49% stake in its joint venture retail company which manages around 140 travel retail and duty free stores at its airports in the Paris region.

 

The selected partner ‘must acquire’ a 49% stake in the subsidiary company of Aéroports de Paris which manages retail, said ADP. The 10-year contact is valued at €9.4 billion/US10.6 billion.

 

The CEO of the airport’s current and long-term duty free and travel retail JV partner Lagardère Travel Retail, Dag Rasmussen revealed in an exclusive interview that same month that he was 99% sure that the company would be in ‘fighting mode’ to win the business, but only after the tender had been ‘properly analysed’.

 

 

Lagardère Travel Retail and ADP first forged a joint venture partnership to operate travel retail and duty free stores in 2003. This agreement was then extended to include travel essentials in 2011.

 

The long-established contract was due to end on 31 December 2022, hence the timely launch of the tender by ADP.

 

 

Speaking exclusively to TRBusiness for the Top 10 Airports Report (to be featured in the June/July ezine), Ferrand was not able to reveal too much about the progression of the tender as the information is confidential and timing is sensitive, but preferred to focus on the Extime concept and what this means for the future of retail at Paris CDG.

 

“Extime is the best example of providing sense of place. A truly holistic concept from right at the beginning of the customer journey [from security] all the way to the customer’s flight, the world’s first airport hospitality and retail brand encapsulates and amplifies the strategy and know-how deployed at Paris Airport.”

 

Read the full interview inside the June/July ezine.