Lagardère Services, one of four divisions of France’s media giant Lagardère, is changing its name to Lagardère Travel Retail to reflect its most important business segment. Its key consumer fascias remain unaffected.

The other part of Lagardère Travel Retail is a distribution operation which is currently being disposed of in order to make the division a pure-play DF&TR business.

Dag Rasmussen, Chairman and CEO of Lagardère Services – with a turnover of €3.2bn/$3.54bn 100% managed sales in 2014 – made the renaming announcement a few days ago at a gathering of 150 top managers representing the 30 countries where the group operates.

Rasmussen explains: “This new name aims at serving the group’s ambition in its quest for growth and excellence and conveys its strategic position in travel retail as well as belonging to Lagardère Group.”

AELIA & RELAY HERE TO STAY

By the end of the year, all group companies will be renamed Lagardère Travel Retail, however the group’s well-established B2C (business to consumer) brands such as Relay and Aelia Duty Free will remain intact.

Distinct from these B2C brands which operate stores in LTR’s three core segments: travel essentials, duty free/luxury, and foodservice, the renamed division offers what it calls “a unique B2C4B approach, aiming at satisfying each and every traveller along his journey”.

The addition of 4B (for business) is a reference to the fact that while LTR serves travelling customers, the ultimate aim is maximise value creation for landlords and brands.

The brand signature expresses the promise: Experience new horizons, every day. Five or six further corporate logos will also be used as part of the new brand identity. The lead image shows one of these, representing ‘a journey within a journey’.