Passengers at T2 will encounter the first of four Relay stores by next summer, with the remaining units set to go live by late November/early December 2026. 

Lagardère Travel Retail will position itself as the ‘challenger of choice’ in the blended travel essentials space at UK airports, the company has told TRBusiness, as the Relay brand prepares for a maiden appearance at Heathrow Airport.

[Scroll to the footer for an exclusive Q&A with Lagardère Travel Retail UK & Ireland CEO Peter Newbould].

The development comes amid the awarding of major contract agreements for the Paris-headquartered travel retailer and WHSmith following a strategic review of the London hub’s travel essentials strategy.

Lagardère Travel Retail will run the blended travel essentials concession at Terminal 2 (The Queen’s Terminal), beginning summer 2026, adding to a Relay portfolio that spans more than 300 airports worldwide.

The agreement covers four Relay units at T2 across a total of 1,360sq m of space.

The upper-level departures store (420sq m) will boast a pharmacy alongside a broad mix of travel essentials, while the lower-level store (490sq m) will offer books, souvenirs, toys, and on-the-go food and drink items.

A further satellite store (340sq m) will carry Lagardère Travel Retail’s popular Discover souvenir concept, while a new Relay shop (100sq m) is also earmarked to open in the landside check-in hall.

Peter Newbould, CEO of Lagardère Travel Retail UK & Ireland, commented: “Heathrow is among the very best airports in the world for its commercial mix and customer service, and we are absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Relay to The Queen’s Terminal.

“Our aim is to meet and even exceed the high standards Heathrow has set, with a dynamic concept that blends convenience with a product ranged attuned to travellers’ needs. Opening the first Relay stores at Heathrow is an extremely exciting prospect. I’m confident that by making Relay a success at Heathrow, we will open up further opportunities to develop our three business lines across the UK market.

“I am grateful to my team for their hard work on this project and to Heathrow for their trust.”

Fraser Brown, Retail Director, Heathrow: “We look forward to welcoming Relay to both Terminal 2 and the UK to broaden our category offer as we work towards becoming an extraordinary airport, fit for the future.”

Next wave of retail investment

Fraser Brown, Retail Director at Heathrow Airport, said: “Our passengers are at the heart of everything we do, and we are excited to launch our new blended essentials approach for travel essentials as part of our transformational retail strategy.

“We look forward to welcoming Relay to both Terminal 2 and the UK to broaden our category offer as we work towards becoming an extraordinary airport, fit for the future.”

The new blended essentials approach, which will offer key product categories including news, books, health and beauty under one roof in each terminal, is informed by feedback from thousands of travelling passengers.

In a dual announcement, news, books and convenience retailer WHSmith – which recently offloaded its High Street arm to focus on its activities as a pureplay travel retailer – will operate shops across Terminals 3 and 4 and extend its presence at Terminal 5 – click here for the full story.

As reported, Heathrow unveiled a £10 billion private investment plan last week over five years, including 70,000sq m of additional space for retail, F&B, and lounges.

Lagardère Travel Retail UK’s operations span duty free concessions at London Luton, London City and Belfast International Airports; gift and souvenir shops at locations such as Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports, plus Glasgow and Aberdeen in Scotland.

Additionally, the company operates duty free onboard Irish Ferries plus F&B outlets at Dublin Airport.

The new blended essentials approach at Heathrow is informed by feedback from thousands of travelling passengers.

“Relay’s debut at Heathrow is a huge satisfaction for our company,” added Frédéric Chevalier, Chief Executive Officer of Lagardère Travel Retail.

“It is a sign of trust in our ability to deliver retail concepts that resonate with travellers in the UK, and to adapt our offer to each travel environment. Heathrow is renowned for its progressive and inventive approach to commercial activities and we are delighted with this opportunity to build our partnership with them.

“Following on from Relay’s recent debut in Türkiye at Antalya Airport, this is another major development for our flagship Travel Essentials brand – and there are more to come.”

Relay partnership: ‘The compass points north’

Well-informed TRBusiness readers will recall that Heathrow put out to tender several blended travel essentials units at The Queen’s Terminal mid-last year, with bidders asked to align proposals – initially for three stores – with the airport’s oft-touted ‘Digital, Experience, Space and Offer’ commercial strategy. Heathrow, via public statements made in the past, has been clear on the value it ascribes to travel essentials, an area it describes as ‘at the heart of its customer proposition’.

The entry of the Relay fascia into Heathrow disrupts a core travel essentials space that up until now has been monopolised by the likes of Boots and WHSmith. 

Having swooped for the blended travel essentials concession at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2, the Paris-headquartered travel retailer has now secured prime exposure at the second busiest international airport in the world, handling more than 79.2 million international passengers annually. It’s a first opportunity to make its mark.

Peter Newbould, CEO of Lagardère Travel Retail UK & Ireland, offers his take.

Peter Newbould, Chief Executive Officer, Lagardère Travel Retail UK & Ireland.

TRBusiness: Peter, firstly your reaction to this ‘breakthrough’ development for Lagardère Travel Retail as it prepares to bring its popular Relay travel convenience concept to a UK airport for the first time…

Peter Newbould: It’s really exciting and a landmark moment. The trust that Heathrow has placed in us is something I am hugely appreciative of; we are going to bring something different in terms of how we operate and the quality of our proposition. They saw our stores in Paris and were impressed. They are looking for us not to replicate the stores in Paris, but do the Heathrow T2 version and something bespoke for passengers in that terminal – very cosmopolitan and international.

There will be four stores opening in T2 across 1,360sq m. Can you comment on the broader thinking behind the Relay merchandise offer on the upper and lower levels?

This is really responding to what Heathrow is looking for. There are two stores in those spaces now. The upper store is being extended. Heathrow wanted the upper store to be the one with the pharmacy, probably a bit more convenience-led whereas the lower store is a little bit more experiential, where more gifting elements are found. Both are large with a comprehensive offer.

The notion of having a true blended essentials proposition which covers everything a customer needs as opposed to what duty free might be – much more ‘want’ type products with a value message attached – does make complete sense from a consumer perspective. It makes it really clear that everything for your journey and destination is here. Some smaller regional airports with smaller footprint stores separate those categories out. That might still work for them, but large airports with large departure lounges where there is perhaps a higher mix of international passengers… it makes sense.

A new satellite store will also house Lagardère Travel Retail’s ‘Discover London’ souvenir and gifting concept. Where do you view the opportunity to develop the brand?

Passengers will, probably, be spending more time at the piers than they currently do so need to make sure there is a fantastic retail experience. Discover has exactly the right kind of  gifting, destination and souvenir products for those people flying to (for instance) the US or Asia, so having a significant Discover section in the [satellite] space can work really well. At heart it is a blended essentials and convenience store with a good souvenir section under the ‘Discover London’ brand. We already have a Discover store in the main T2 international departure lounge on the upper level.

Will all the new shops be unveiled simultaneously by summer 2026 or are you looking at staggered openings?

It will absolutely be a phased rollout. At Heathrow, the need to keep essentials stores trading with that breadth of offer is clearly important. We will have the first of the stores (upper level T2) open by early summer 2026 and we will then transition through with the last few stores opening by the end of the year.

What can travellers encounter from the new Relay stores that will be, distinctively ‘British’?

In terms of design, there are definitely cues in a number of the stores. The souvenir section in one of the units will have a Kew Gardens-esque element and Paddington will be making an appearance in Lego form, so there are definitely British cues. You’re looking at the equivalents… In the stores in Paris CDG, we sell a lot of plush toy croissants and madeleines. What are the equivalents of this in the UK? This is something we’ll be working on between now and the openings…

Heathrow is undergoing a significant transformation – £10 billion in private investment announced last week. The five-year plan will create 70,000sq m of additional space for retail, F&B, and lounges. Can you give us any early steer on the longer-term role that Lagardère expects to play as part of this?

We want to play whatever role any airport in the UK will have us play; we want to compete for space across our business lines and optimise the value of that space for our partners wherever we get the opportunity to do so.

You’ve said that the success of Relay could open up further opportunities for your three business lines (Travel Essentials, Duty Free & Fashion and Dining) in the UK – what can we expect moving forward?

We want to be the challenger of choice in this market for our partners – airport operators, consumers and for our suppliers as well. We want all of us to be driving the same agenda in the value chain to optimise SPP, and we want to be the challenger of choice for our people as well, getting the best people and retain them. We only get to be a business by winning contracts with our partners. The compass always points north and our north is the partners.

What is exciting about this is we are bringing core travel essentials with the number one travel essentials brand in international airports in the world to the UK. Relay in Heathrow, alongside our cross business lines of duty free, F&B and travel essentials really does give us the platform and infrastructure to grow across all of our business lines in this market.

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