The Group\u2019s extensive airport retailing portfolio includes several commercial brands such as Dufry, Nuance and World Duty Free in the duty-free sector as well as Hudson or Dufry Shopping for dutypaid operations serving domestic passengers. In Asia, Dufry Group\u2019s Nuance brand is a highly respected travel retail operator present in Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia for many years.<\/span><\/p>\n With their perfect understanding of the local customers, Nuance features a comprehensive assortment that includes perfumes & cosmetics, general merchandise, liquors & tobaccos, luxury brand boutiques, specialty souvenirs and food & beverages. In addition to its all-embracing portfolio of duty and tax-free outlets, brand boutiques and concept stores, The Nuance Group also supports the travel retail sector by providing in-flight services and operating a distribution business.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms. Alessandra Piovesana, Nuance Asia Regional Managing Director cum Dufry Group Regional Chief Operating Officer in Asia and the Middle East, spoke about the new Group\u2019s long-term advantages and growth potential.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDufry and the Group\u2019s retail brands such as Nuance share many unifying qualities. They\u2019ve been involved in travel retailing for numerous years and have built up an excellent reputation globally in the role of pioneering new retail approaches with customers, new innovations and constantly re-inventing and re-investing in our business to achieve retail excellence and success.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn Asia, Dufry was the first international airport retail operator to enter China, when it began directly operating retail spaces in China\u2019s two main airports, namely Shanghai Hongqiao and Chengdu Shuangliu. Dufry also became the only non-national operator in South Korea when it commenced operations at Busan Gimhae Airport. The Group\u2019s impressive history of many travel retail firsts includes it becoming the premier airport retail operator in Cambodia\u2019s Phnom Penh and Siem Reap International Airports.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhile Dufry is renowned for its boldness in expanding its operational footprint across the travel retail world, Nuance is equally highly regarded for breaking new ground in bringing scores of truly international brands, pioneering many Asian and global firsts stories. Nuance\u2019s core strengths remain innovation, marketing promotions, genuinely engaging customer relations initiatives, and meaningful corporate social responsibility programmes. Everything Nuance has done has been validated by local or global awards and industry recognition,\u201d\u00a0Ms. Piovesana adds.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the years, Nuance has been responsible for introducing many cutting-edge retail concepts. In addition to the award-winning \u2018Suncatcher\u2019 (Zurich) and \u2018ICON\u2019 (HKIA) eyewear concepts, they include the \u2018Timebox\u2019 watches & jewellery concepts (Zurich) and the \u2018Master of Time\u2019 multi-brand luxury watch concept (HKIA). The \u2018Taste & Delights\u2019 multi-brand fine confectionery concept (HKIA), the award-winning Asian-first La Prairie travel retail flagship counter with exclusive beauty cabin (HKIA) and first-in-travel retail HK Airport \u2018Arrival Collection Service\u2019 are amongst Nuance\u2019s many other notable successes in this area.<\/span><\/p>\n On the marketing front, Nuance\u2019s key successes include the hosting of \u2018We Support\u2019 Anti-Crisis Partnership programme, the two award-winning \u2018Panda\u2019 and \u2018Toy Story\u2019 promotion campaigns, plus timely \u2018Beijing Olympics\u2019, \u2018Ferrari\u2019 and \u2018HK Rugby Sevens\u2019 outposts. Nuance continues to do its utmost to deliver on its corporate social responsibility commitments; it has organized a successful \u2018Save & Preserve\u2019 green campaign at HKIA and an \u2018Ubuntu\u2019 fabric bags initiative, providing stable employment for rural Karnataka women in Bangalore, India. <\/span><\/p>\n Ms. Piovesana adds, \u201cIn leveraging the best practices from each of the Group\u2019s commercial brands and know-how, we are creating a \u2018centre of retail excellence\u2019. Our ultimate aim is to further explore this direction so as to benefit our customers, partners and stakeholders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Having created a newly enhanced roster of over 110 stores across 14 locations in Asia and the Middle East, the newly combined Dufry Group promises Alessandra Piovesana and her colleagues enormous potential synergies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe future of travel retail in a vast market like China is promising. As Dufry already works at several of the country\u2019s most prominent airports, we as an insider are ideally placed to keep our finger on China\u2019s pulse. This enables us to gain first-hand knowledge of Chinese business and leisure travellers\u2019 \u2018likes\u2019 and \u2018dislikes\u2019, continuously accessing the detailed and up-to-date profiling of China\u2019s fast-changing consumer markets, and ultimately be able to derive strategies to satisfy and exceed their expectations,\u201d says Ms. Piovesana.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs the pre-eminent travel retail operator at airports in Cambodia and Bali, our team remains privileged to work hand in hand with the airport authorities there. As we move forward, we will continue to do all we can to help develop and build travel retail facilities in each location from scratch. Harnessing our formative presence in both emerging airports, we have gained and accumulated valuable understanding of local and overseas passengers from day one. This enables us to capitalize on our understanding and to fuel future growth at new developments in other airports.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDue to the unique nature of each of these two destinations, we are also building up a learning curve in terms of seamlessly integrating local culture and working closely with local entrepreneurs with the aim to create a strong sense of place that will attract foreign visitors while also helping to promote each nation\u2019s cultural uniqueness.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Ms. Piovesana adds, \u201cAs for South Korea, we are confident that the travel retail market here offers enormous future potential as it is sure to benefit from the significant increase in the number of visitors from China. As the first non-Korean operator in Busan Airport, we believe that we have many advantages as this situation progresses. As we are all aware that South Korea\u2019s travel retail market is largely dominated by local operators, our goal must be to strengthen our position starting with our current location at Busan. In doing so, we will fully leverNuance is renowned for going extra miles to create consumer delights. age our knowledge and experience while continuing to explore opportunities to expand our footprint across South Korea.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo this end, we are ready to invest and cooperate with local partners in developing new locations that will contribute to and capitalize on South Korea\u2019s burgeoning travel retail industry.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn Middle Eastern countries such as Sharjah, our intention is to see how we can not only further our coverage in the market, but also add to our experience of operating different concepts to meet customers\u2019 needs such as convenience with our own home brand \u2018HUDSON\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDufry\u2019s operations have laid a solid foundation for building regional geographical knowledge and experience. Nuance\u2019s retail portfolio perfectly complements this and serves as a cradle to nurture new innovations, concepts, alliances and creative marketing activities, while generating contributing synergies in the areas of professional know-how, brands and range management, logistic efficiencies and supply speed to market. All of which will become enablers of our future growth in the region. Here as always our key aim remains the enriching of our regional presence via constant uplifting of shopping pleasure and customer satisfaction levels,\u201d adds Ms. Piovesana.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite being in a tenders\u2019 business where positive outcomes are not warranted, Nuance\u2019s stamina to add value to the airport as well as expand and grow its Asian business with perseverance and ingenuity remains strong. This year, the company has won several specialty licenses at HKIA. In addition to a \u2018Longchamp\u2019 luxury brand boutique and \u2018J.S. Trunk & Co. by American Tourister\u2019 travel concept, they include \u2018Kipling\u2019 bags & accessories\u2019 new landside departure store. Ms. Piovesana and her team also successfully retained the highly competitive Audio Visual Electronics Equipment Concession.<\/span><\/p>\n Best of all, in addition to its three existing \u2018Sound & Vision\u2019 stores in the airside departure hall, Nuance has now secured two new locations, one in landside arrival hall and another in the new Midfield Concourse. <\/span><\/p>\n Following 2014\u2019s successful re-launch of The Atrium Department Store at The Venetian Macao Resort, Nuance now plans to open two more downtown stores in Macau next year. Both new outlets will be located in prime spots at the upmarket Sands Retail\u2019s new \u2018Shoppes at Parisian\u2019 shopping mall.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the stores will be called \u2018Temptation\u2019 and will offer an opulent beauty range across a 2,600-sq.m. duplex store. Branded as \u2018Atelier\u2019, the second store will be a unique, \u2018premium to affordable luxury\u2019 leather accessories concept. Measuring 206 sq.m., the outlet will distinguish itself by offering genuine craftsmanship, quality material and contemporary design. Reminiscent of an artisan\u2019s workshop, its layout will take inspiration from an artist\u2019s creative studio. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll these new initiatives are solidly grounded on our team\u2019s unique category insights and spirit of innovation. Combined with in-depth customer knowledge, long-standing operational expertise, and most importantly, proven partnerships with brands, the end results look very promising indeed. Such qualities and soft skills will continue to play a vital role as we strive to sustain long-term performance for our customers, our stakeholders and our investors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As a direct result of the tie-up, Dufry and Nuance are now also interacting in terms of regionalization by capitalizing on their shared ability to consolidate their power base across Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms. Piovesana shares, \u201cThe new entity is also working hard to create an Asia Pacific regional platform based in Hong Kong in order to streamline procurement, supply chain, re-ordering and logistics activities. The intention here is to improve market focus and strengthen the Group\u2019s market competences to deliver better professional service to support both current operations and new business development. The desire is to attain synergy and nurture the ground for future region-wide growth.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe new regional platform will also enhance Nuance and Dufry\u2019s capability to incorporate regional vis-\u00e0-vis country-specific initiatives in both brand and range management as well as planning and procurement activities. Managing region-wide processes via a dedicated and qualified team ensuring between-platform and individual market transparency will also enable the Group to boost its speed to market, bargaining power with international suppliers while ensuring a more efficient delivery of quality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.mediazone.com.hk\/hkmvc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/hkmvc16_NuanceGroup2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nShared DNA <\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nBest of the Best <\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nSynergy for Success <\/span><\/h3>\n
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