The Nuance Group says the impact on its global business from the heightened security restrictions after August 10 was worse than the impact of SARS, or the aftermath of 9/11.

Speaking to TREND this month, President and Ceo Roberto Graziani said: ?Our performance suffered dramatically in the first 3-4 weeks after their application and we suffer still, even though the situation is slowly improving.
?This event has impacted our business more than September 11th and SARS, since it involves all the airports where we are managing retail operations. ?Moreover, from a financial point of view, the airports most heavily impacted are those already operating under a ?minimum guarantee? situation ? unfortunately, as we are saying in Italy, it is always raining where it's already wet.
?We are currently under discussions with those airports where the impact of the security restrictions has materially increased the incidence of our rent in terms of sales and, as usual, responses vary heavily according to who we talk to.
?Some partners are very much aware of the current difficult situation and are helping us in different ways; others, however ? and fortunately very few of them ? are using this opportunity to prove how strong they are in contractual terms. I hope that, in the end, everybody involved will realize that such events cannot impact only the concessionaire's profitability.?
Meanwhile, Graziani also took the opportunity to pay tribute to the recent work of the European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) and others in securing the industry's future: ‘Let me finally take the opportunity to thank all those people within the industry who have been heavily involved in the last couple of months in convincing bureaucrats and politicians that our supply chain is secure enough to consider any purchase restriction within the secure area useless.
‘What we have achieved, through the help of the ETRC, in those regulatory and political issues, must be considered a huge step towards the sustainability and growth of this industry.’