Flughafen Zürich AG (Zürich Airport) will open two luxury brand stores next summer with partner Dufry, TRBusiness can reveal.

One of the brands will stock ready-to-wear fashion and the other will sell accessories. Further details were not immediately available.

In a recent interview, Stefan Gross, Chief Commercial Officer at Zürich Airport confirmed that the airport is enjoying strong pax growth this year (+6% to October year-to-date reported at the time of interview), including quality gains from the airport’s hub carrier Swiss.

STRENGTHENING INSTORE

Dufry signed a 12-year contract extension with Zurich Airport in 2016, which included a full renovation of its commercial space.

The contract covers duty free departures and arrivals concessions, with Dufry remodelling its departure walkthrough store in the second half of last year to showcase its ‘New Generation’ fascia.

“Not everything worked, but one of the reasons we like working with Dufry is we always have a very good partnership when it comes to reflecting on what is going well and what needs to change,” said Gross.

Commenting on the airport’s commercial focuses this year, Heidi Köpple, Head of Commercial Centers, Zürich Airport said: “We try to investigate a lot in terms of brand adjacencies. Being based in Switzerland where we are allowed to display tobacco the way it is today is a big advantage, and jointly with Dufry we came up with the idea to place the category at the entrance as it is an impulse product and it starts your basket.

“With the new layout we thought it would be good to separate champagne and wine from the rest of the liquor offer – it was a completely new approach and a process passengers are going through to see products arranged differently.”

Combining cigars and Cognac for example in the brown liquor area has achieved marked success, while confectionery – and particularly local brands – has been given much more prominence in the new store.

Elsewhere, developments at the airport’s pioneering mixed-use development The Circle continue apace, with more tenants adding to the lineup this year.

This includes five in the last month – Raiffeisen Schweiz, isolutions, totemo, Victoria Apotheke Zürich and Neuroth Hörcenter AG.

The Circle will also feature a domestic retail format from Dufry to add more versatility to the space.

“For us, the landside commercial performance has always been mean meaningful and important; we’re also performing well in core duty free categories and luxury,” explained Gross. “This is not a copy and paste shopping experience in a duty free environment.”

FIVE NEW HUDSON UNITS

Earlier today, Dufry announced it had signed a new duty paid contract to open five more Hudson convenience stores over a total of 270sq m.

Three of the stores will be located in Terminal A and two in Terminal B and D serving the Schengen and non-Schengen departure areas.

Located close to the gates, a particular focus will be placed on F&B, alongside media (books, newspapers and magazines), souvenirs and travel essentials.

The contract runs for five years and begins on 1 January 2019.

Zürich tendered its convenience business in three lots last year, with Dufry winning one of the airside concessions.

Praising the long-standing partnership with Zürich Airport, Fred Creighton, Divisional CEO UK and Central Europe, Dufry said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the contract to develop additional retail space here and look forward to working in close partnership with our colleagues in the airport team, to deliver the five new Hudson stores.”

Dufry already boasts two Hudson stores at the airport, one in Terminal E and the other in Arrival 1.

Gross added: “Hudson convinced us with its tailor-made offer fulfilling the needs of our passengers and enables Zürich Airport to strengthen the convenience offer in the gate areas. We are happy to confirm again the successful partnership with our partner Dufry.”

Dufry told this publication recently that the next location for its New Generation format will feature at Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport Terminal A Departures.