Lagardère Travel Retail Belgium has opened the first phase of a new 600sq m walkthrough travel retail store at Brussels-South station.

The shop is located post-security in the Eurostar terminal from where passengers can travel to London’s St Pancras International.

TRBusiness can confirm that 60% of the store (the full perfume and cosmetics category, part of the alcohol offer, convenience and Belgian chocolate and beers) opened on 13 January 2020. The remaining 40% will be unveiled on 1 April.

As reported, Lagardère Travel Retail announced it was to purchase Belgian travel retailer International Duty Free (IDF) for €250m ($275.6m) in July 2019. The acquisition was completed last September and covers 25 duty free, fashion and confectionery points of sale at Brussels Airport.

It also encompasses two duty free stores at Charleroi Airport, premium chocolate stores under The Belgian Chocolate House branding at Brussels-South Station, in downtown Antwerp and in Luxembourg and one duty free store in Nairobi, Kenya.

FORWARD THINKING

The decision to open the Brussels-South travel retail store was made three-and-a-half years ago with previous IDF shareholder Compagnie Nationale à Portefeuille. This followed a United Kingdom referendum on 23 June 2016 which determined that Britain would leave the European Union. Following three delays to the original Brexit deadline of 29 March 2019, the leaving date is set for 31 January 2020.

Nicolas Van Brandt, CEO Lagardère Travel Retail Belgium, who is leading the integration of IDF and Lagardère Travel Retail told TRBusiness: “When it became clear Brexit was going to happen, we decided to call for a tender, while hoping and waiting for Brexit to go ahead last year.

“From that point onwards, the relevant parties were extremely proactive and a tender was issued for a duty free store serving travellers to London.”

Currently, liquor and tobacco products, for example are available at duty paid prices. At present, there is no duty free regime for EU international railway stations post Brexit, but the European Travel Retail Confederation is lobbying the EU authorities, as this has been confirmed to be the case in the UK.

As far as airports, cruise ships/ferries are concerned no further developments are expected on the return of duty free for EU-bound travellers from the UK and vice-versa until at least the end of 2020, when negotiations on the future relationship between the UK and EU are set to conclude.

Van Brandt said: “For liquor and tobacco, we are cheaper than the UK domestic market even at duty paid prices. The opening of the Eurostar store is definitely a good strategic move for the company. The offer is very good for British travellers who can purchase Belgian products as gifts or for self-consumption at the best prices compared to the domestic market.”

Creating a strong sense of place was priority from the outset, according to Van Brandt. “In Belgium, we are known for playing football and selling chocolate and beer. Our chocolate and beer are the most famous in the world and our beer is particularly popular among British people.

“The reason we offer a wide range of Belgian products in an environment with a strong of place is because we want to provide unforgettable souvenirs for British people.”

PASSENGER PROFILING

In terms of accommodating the needs of shoppers, the company had sufficient information to curate the optimum offer. “We profiled the Eurostar customers pretty easily as we already had the spend per destination for UK passengers on British Airways and other airlines.

“As a result, we could easily define the ideal product mix and top-sellers for the British destinations. There is clearly little discrepancy between the airport and the railway station in terms of consumption.”

Aside striving to ensure the Eurostar store hits the ground running, Van Brandt is intent on building on a record 2019 in which IDF excelled commercially and financially. He said: “At the very least, we must remain as good as we were and ideally become even better because of the power and experience of Lagardère worldwide.”

Van Brandt (pictured left) who said the integration of IDF and Lagardère was going according to plan, has adopted a ‘best of both worlds philosophy’. He explained: “We must take key learnings from a very focused, dedicated and strong performing company like IDF. In addition, it is important we take the experience, new concept portfolio and improved purchasing conditions which the Lagardère Group offers and leverage on this in Belgium.”

In other Lagardère Travel Retail news, the retailer has opened a new 154sq m Discover Singapore outlet at Singapore Changi Terminal 1. The store is the latest revamp of Lagardère’s Discover brand and is the result of several months of development and co-creation with Changi Airport Group and other external partners including Singapore Management University.

New features include a digital human welcome video to attract and create an unexpected store arrival, pick & mix wall for a customised gifting option, digital postcard kiosk, where travellers can create personalised postcard souvenirs and multi-sensorial, which is the addition of scent and sound to the store experience.

New way-finding and clear segmentation, refreshed brand and tone of voice across all touch-points — including the integration of educational facts about Singapore — green plant walls to create warmth and bring nature and a theatre zone to host a rotating roster of brands and activations throughout the year have all been introduced.

“The new shop is sure to attract tourists and travelling Singaporeans as a one stop shop for gifting and mementos/souvenirs,” the company said.