Dag Rasmussen, Chairman and CEO, Lagardère Travel Retail On The Local Gateway to Growth. André de Almeida Reports from ASUTIL 2025
4 minutes read
Introduction by: Peter Marshall
The ASUTIL 2025 Conference in Peru coincided with the opening of Lagardère Travel Retail’s new stores and restaurants at the recently inaugurated Lima Jorge Chavez International Airport. This provided the perfect platform for Chairman & CEO, Dag Rasmussen, to attend the event and deliver the keynote address. This opportunity was used to share the Lagardère Travel Retail business approach to others in the region beyond their existing footprint across Peru and Chile, but also to reflect on the challenges faced by the channel at a global level. Here’s our take of the importance of what he said – not just to the delegates attending, but for the wider travel retail community.
Dag Rasmussen was adamant that “of all the challenges that we face as an industry, arguably the most concerning is the risk of decline in spend per PAX across the duty free core categories, in which airport commercial revenues depends heavily.
“Today, our challenge and our job is to hedge the risk of a more structural decline. For example, take Liquor and Tobacco, younger people – which is a crucial demographic – consume these products very differently to their parents’ generation and we must adapt our product offer to reflect this. That is not to say that we should ignore the needs of the older generation”.
There is a simple question that Dag asked those attending ASUTIL to consider – what exactly does the traveller want?
To answer this question, he took those of us in the audience to the past by recounting that Lagardère Travel Retail had been in this position before – when their travel essentials brand RELAY faced structural challenges affecting their core categories of press, books and duty paid tobacco. To strengthen their base business, RELAY reacted by offering more choice (such as snacking and electronics) in greater convenience and this approach helped to build a more vibrant and exciting offer around the core categories. Simply listening to the consumer needs and wants allowed RELAY to make the offer more relevant and fit for growth and future success.
There was also some recognition within his presentation that operators in the GTR channel have at times been responsible for offering the same, or at least too similar, an offer around the world and have thus created boring stores – what some in the industry may call the ‘shopping mall syndrome’.
So, what does it take to avoid those pitfalls and adapt the product offer? According to Dag: “adaptability means curating the right product, the right brands, timely, at the right price and in the right place”. Every travel environment is unique and demands a bespoke approach with a bespoke range in each location. He also stated that “understanding and embracing local culture is one of the keys of success in the travel retail environment”.
In a similar way to how Lagardère transformed the RELAY offer, the company is also aiming to better meet expectations of these changing consumer needs across Global Travel Retail globally. The stated strategy is to strengthen the base across the key duty-free categories and refresh the overall range within their travel retail stores, whilst always asking themselves the one key question: what is it that consumers want?
Their intention is to combine this adaptability with local empowerment, working in tandem to target sourcing 30% of their range locally, although they accept this may be an ambitious target for some locations. At the Aelia Duty Free Lima Airport store, this strategy could be seen in action first hand in the core category of Liquor, with a wide offer of Peruvian drinks brands available.
As would be expected for those visiting Peru, there was a wide variety of Pisco products – from different brands, formats (such as Pisco Sour gift packs) and even for sampling through the ‘Mixologo Bar’ on the retail shop floor.
The local offer on Liquor also included other categories such as rum and whiskey, including the pioneering Peruvian whiskey, which featured prominently and has helped to create the new category of ‘Andean Whiskey’.
Produced only an hour’s drive from Lima at Don Michael Distillery in Lurín, it was founded back in 2018 by American entrepreneur Michael Kuryla and his Peruvian wife Daiana Mayer.
This brand has been more widely recognised within Peru itself since receiving international awards from abroad for the quality of their liquid.
Black Whiskey harnesses local Peruvian terroir through the use of Andean corn (‘maiz morado’), mountain water and high altitude distillation. It produces a bourbon style of whiskey with a mash bill made up of 60% Andean corn, 15% malted barley, 15% malted wheat and 10% Peruvian unmalted wheat. The fermentation period takes between 2 to 3 days.
They currently utilise a 6,000L copper pot still to produce around 1,000 -1,200L per week of new make spirit at 62-63% abv, which is then matured for a minimum of 2.5 years in brand new charred white oak casks. Unlike Scotland, in Peru they have a much higher annual evaporation rate – the ‘angel’s share’ – at around 10 -15% and the abv is higher at the end of the process (at 66%-67% abv).
Black Whiskey is the perfect example of a product that would be of interest to travellers going through Peru, from a drinks category not typically associated with the country. It is a great example of local empowerment by Lagardère, as part of their efforts to refresh their offer through a more curated range taking into account the local culture.
On reflection, it makes one think why the same approach could not be taken by other operators in the region and beyond – supporting local producers, offering a more diverse range of products and flavours, and to create excitement for PAX travelling through their stores, helping to convert them into shoppers.
One example that comes to mind is Avolta in Brazil, who could extend their local drinks offer further beyond the national drink of Cachaça, to also actively support local brands such as those behind the emergence of Brazilian single malt whisky: Union Distillery and Lamas Destilaria – neither of which is yet listed nor featured prominently across Brazilian airports and their duty free stores.
I had the opportunity to visit the Black Whiskey production site during ASUTIL and was hosted by Gianfranco Fontana. I’d like to thank him and also to Michael Kuryla for facilitating the visit in advance of the trip.
