In a trade-exclusive interview, Philippe Margueritte speaks of a dual sense of honour and obligation in accepting the TFWA Presidency, as he sets out his stall on the association’s future direction and talks of a desire to generate meaningful, impactful change on behalf of all industry stakeholders.

When TRBusiness met with the newly elected President in Paris last month to conduct his first trade media interview, he put into words the magnitude of his election victory in December.

“It’s a privilege and honour for me to be the President of TFWA, but it also comes with great responsibility because we are representing nearly 500 brands,” he beamed. “Therefore, I recognise the importance of going beyond expectations.

“TFWA is an association that is very prestigious and not only because it is a longstanding body in travel retail, but because it is in an industry that is very fast paced, evolving and this is very exciting. We stand at the cusp of new challenges and opportunities and I’m excited to contribute to this new moment of the association and to travel retail.”

The former Coty and L’Oréal executive emerged victorious in a hotly contested race to succeed highly respected industry veteran Erik Juul-Mortensen at the helm of the association on a one-year term, as per TFWA’s statutes, until December 2025.

Philippe Margueritte, President, TFWA: “The election was very positive in that I was able to meet and talk with every single MC member and I was really amazed by the quality and talent of those new people and the energy. Sometimes we can disagree, which is good, but TFWA is a platform for debate, and we love that.”

Election: the context

His nomination among TFWA’s Management Committee was enough to fend off competition from a veritable shortlist of contenders.

This publication has it on good authority that this group included Sunil Tuli, Group Chief Executive Officer of King Power Group (Hong Kong) and President of APTRA; Keith Hunter, Chief Retail Officer, Urban-Air Port; Alexandra Schimel-Fila, former Creative Director of Zilli; and Olivier Bottrie, formerly Global President, Travel Retail and Retail Development at The Estée Lauder Companies. Sam Gerber, Managing Partner at WorldConnect AG – Skross, made public his intention to run in October.

It is reliably understood that the election on 13 December culminated in a run-off between Margueritte and Bottrie for the chance to take the reins as the association’s figurehead.

“First of all, I am not alone,” uttered Margueritte with authority and deference. “This is a team effort. I think this is very important. My role as President is to inspire, energise and encourage creativity within the organisation and also with the Board and MC, which is working on a daily basis on the future of the organisation.”

While acknowledging that his candidature for President might not have been on the tip of industry tongues at the time, a glance at his resume demonstrates his qualifications to lead the organisation, with more than 30 years in the beauty sector, nearly 16 of which were spent at Coty latterly as Senior Vice President Global Travel Retail and Export, and close to 12 years at L’Oréal Group.

During his leadership at Coty, when TRBusiness had the pleasure of interviewing Margueritte on frequent occasions, he played a central role in developing the travel retail function following the company’s $12.5bn merger of the Procter & Gamble (P&G) fine fragrance, colour cosmetics, salon professional and hair colour empire in 2015, which resulted in Coty absorbing 43 of P&G’s beauty brands.

Aside his lofty status at the beauty powerhouse, Margueritte also spent time as a member of the Management Committee at both TFWA and the European Travel Retail Confederation (ETRC).

A sojourn away from travel retail – he left Coty in 2019 – took him to Switzerland-based Ritz Enterprises S.A, where as CEO he held ultimate responsibility for building the product and branding credentials of the revered ultra-luxury hotel chain. But working for a business involved in travel excellence meant he was never far from the industry ecosystem, he reminded TRBusiness.

Indeed, his experience and connections have undoubtedly served him well over the years and, as he put, he was “never far from the association”.

Having learned of Erik Juul-Mortensen’s decision not to contest the 2024 election and step away from the association during last year’s TFWA World Exhibition & Conference, Margueritte commented: “I was not aware of his [Erik’s] decision, but it parked in me a strong desire to dedicate part of my energy, vision and leadership to the association I love so much. This isn’t a deep secret […] and was a natural evolution for me.”

Listening and learning

Rather than dwelling on the factors that swung his election victory, Margueritte preferred to focus on the next steps for the association. During a relaxed, free-flowing exchange, conversation shifted to the new President’s modus operandi. Importantly, what can the industry expect to see in the coming months from a Philippe Margueritte presidency? What are his first points of order and vision for the association’s future pathway?

With due candour, given the relative infancy of his tenure, Margueritte explained to TRBusiness that his initial reflections on the state of the association have lead to five key ideas based on the feedback he has garnered internally.

“It is very preliminary,” he was at pains to stress. “I was elected on 13 December, so today I’m listening rather than setting hard directions, but basically we would like to strengthen membership benefits, to ensure TFWA delivers increasing value to its members. This has to be one of our ambitions and focus.

“Secondly, TFWA is a platform that of course represents the brands but is also able to gather the other actors in travel retail – airports, operators, retailers. Strengthening the relationship with all those stakeholders is a very important mission that we have and are working on. Another one is to be able to build reliable data. Travel retail remains one of the only channels without comprehensive data.

TRBusiness enjoyed an insightful and candid exchange with TFWA’s new President when this publication visited the association’s office located in Rue de Berri off the famous Champs-Élysées in central Paris.

“We want to elevate the experiences, content and way we are delivering our key events to bring more excitement. The last, maybe new for us, is we need to embrace the sustainability topic. We will take a very pragmatic, but data-minded approach to tackle sustainability challenges for the industry and the association.”

Margueritte is adamant that the fundamentals of DF&TR remain on a strong footing, demonstrated by the appetite for travel, record aircraft orders, new airports and route launches, democracy of passport issuances, and increasing passenger load factors.

But context is critical. The retail sector, be it domestic or export, has suffered its share of casualties in the years leading up to and during Covid-19. As a result, everyone involved in the travel retail business in particular is intimately aware of the consequences of inaction.

Since the worst fallout in the industry’s history, seismic shifts have coloured the picture: from retailer consolidation and regulatory change, to wars, macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil, compounded by transforming consumer sentiment, attitudes to spending and the pace of human and technological change.

The controllables

All this means the challenges facing TFWA as a membership organisation today are markedly different versus pre-Covid in a landscape that has changed, some would argue, beyond all recognition.

On the ground, the margins of many of the hundreds of multi-category brands TFWA represents remain under increased strain in a fiercely competitive and cost-squeezed trading environment, as retailers battle on pricing, space, reputational (and financial) equity as global spend per passenger lags.

Put to TFWA that many of the above remain ‘uncontrollables’ and asked therefore which levers the association possesses to influence meaningful change on behalf of its members, Margueritte was unequivocal and philosophical in equal measure: “Of course, we have no grip on political changes, wars etc. But what we can do and what we have to do as an association is to foster adaptability. I think one of the big strengths of travel retail is being able to adapt to crises as our business is integrated.

“There is a crisis in the world everyday and our business is a 24-hour, 365-days a year business. Therefore, adaptability is key for us as an association but also for all stakeholders in travel retail. What we can do is try to give to travel retail stakeholders the tools to be much more adaptable, to anticipate and develop faster than the environment is capable of affecting our business.

Long-serving TFWA President Erik Juul-Mortensen made his final state of the industry address at the TFWA World Exhibition & Conference in Cannes last year, having taken the decision not to contest the election in December.

“We need to put people around the table in order to set strategy and protect our business and develop new strategies, innovation, creativity that will deliver value for the overall industry. We are very fortunate because we have a very talented team, with a lot of experience and we can build on this experience to generate the change.”

That the association has enacted the biggest shakeup across its MC and Board seen in years will be viewed as a litmus test for progress in the coming months and years.

As reported, new faces to have joined the TFWA Board following its AGM in October are Jean-Pierre Bombet, Head of Operations at Be Relax, who has taken on the role of Vice President Finance; Erin Lillis, Travel Retail Director APAC, Lacoste, is Vice President Commercial; and Loukia Alepochoriti, Global Duty Free & Export at Imperial Brands, is Vice President Conference and Research.

The incoming trio replaced long-serving members Frédéric Garcia-Pelayo of Interparfums, Donatienne de Fontaines-Guillaume of Moët Hennessy and Arnaud de Volontat of Altimetre. The new additions to the Board join existing members – Chanel’s Hervé Ducros, Vice President Marketing, and Sam Gerber, Vice President Corporate and Member Services.

The TFWA Board and Management Committee elected in October will serve the association on a two-year mandate to October 2026.

“It is a reflection of what is happening at the Management Committee [level],” noted Margueritte. “Renovation starts in the MC and after that expresses itself through the board. It is very important to have diversity, younger people, better representation of categories and to improve the way we are going to represent different regions and businesses. This is still something we need to work on. Diversity is a strong richness.

“The election was very positive in that I was able to meet and talk with every single MC member and I was really amazed by the quality and talent of those new people and the energy. I want to thank them a lot as their engagement and support of the organisation is key for us. It is new ideas, energy, vision. Sometimes we can disagree, which is good, but TFWA is a platform for debate, and we love that. I see it as very positive. We will probably see a different way of doing things thanks to a new MC.”

Such diversity of experience stands the association in good stead, and it will require a sensible set of heads to confront what is perhaps one of the most pressing and yet-to-be resolved challenges: data authenticity.

As alluded to above, access to credible, transparent revenue data at a regional, channel and category level remains painfully elusive, despite years of talk and a very public remonstration by former TFWA MD Alain Maingreaud at the TFWA World Conference several years ago.

TFWA AP: ‘Strong’ pre-registration interest

Margueritte is eager to tackle the topic, one unboxed at length by TRBusiness in the October Cannes edition – click here to read the full report. Margueritte is reassuringly accepting of the data challenge. At the same time, he is resoundingly upbeat about the industry’s ability to turn the page on it.

“It is my belief that when you are navigating without a real set of data, you are less ambitious for yourself and your organisation,” he explained. “Data is the backbone of any strategy for brands, retailers and airports. It is hard to believe that travel retail is still today the sole channel lacking reliable overall market data.

“Today, when I compare with my more than 20 years in the local market across all different channels – in consumer, pharmacy, digital, luxury, distribution – these have reliable market data.

“Travel retail is no longer a fragmented regional business; it is an interconnected global ecosystem. Sooner or later, data will be a critical factor in financing, for example for huge AI-driven investments, optimising strategies, and identifying opportunities in assortment, regional presence, and pricing competitiveness.

“It is concerning when decisions are based purely on past experiences. In today’s fast-changing world, relying only on the ‘rear-view mirror’ can be risky. Having data and being able to identify trends is key to anticipating and adapting.

“This is why resolving the data challenge is a top priority. TFWA, as an independent association, is well positioned to bring all stakeholders together to create a solution that ensures both transparency and confidentiality, benefiting the entire industry.”

He adds though that times are changing. Fresh personnel within organisations including retailers, airports and even TFWA itself bring a plurality of skills and experience such as the ability to crunch sets of data to understand its true value and gain a competitive edge.

“Things are moving,” he noted. “We just need to take the lead. Without data, it is complicated to do that.”

As TFWA prepares to host the forthcoming Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference, Margueritte confirms ‘strong interest’ in the numbers for pre-registration, which opened on 13 February.

“Many leading brands have already confirmed their participation in Singapore this May, and we are especially proud to welcome more Asian brands than ever before,” he said.

“This year, we will place a strong focus on next-generation shopping behaviour and explore the fast-growing Indian travel retail market, which presents significant opportunities.”

Asked to share a final message with TRBusiness’ readers, Margueritte concluded: “TFWA is fully committed to protecting and creating value for our industry. We see ourselves as a catalyst for innovation and creativity, working not just for our members but for all stakeholders contributing to the success of travel retail. Together, we can embrace change, seize new opportunities, and continue building a dynamic and thriving industry.”

See the TRBusiness April e-zine for further commentary from Philippe Margueritte, President, TFWA.

READ MORE: TFWA announces line-up for its Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference 2025

READ MORE: TFWA shares programme details for 2025 Asia Pacific gathering