Triple Nine: Pushing Beyond What Is Standard In Travel Retail
7 minutes read
Introduction by: Peter Marshall
It’s always great to write a story on a company that really is approaching travel retail in a different way. Triple Nine is one such company. Co-Founded by Managing Partners Eli Fel and Michael Koblenz, their multi-category ‘first mover’ approach is both fresh, dynamic and innovative. “We offer the edge. Our concepts are authentic, rooted in design, memory and experience”, says Michael Koblenz. When you read this exclusive interview with Michael and Sofia Keles, Head of Travel Retail, you can only agree.
Peter Marshall (PM): Michael, Sofia, welcome to TRunblocked.com. I want to start this conversation by understanding this: what are the roots of the name: Triple Nine?
Michael Koblenz (MK): Triple Nine stands for pushing beyond what’s standard. It is a symbol of ambition and precision. Where others stop , we aim for 99+ – the extra effort, the extra detail, the extra spark that makes the difference. That philosophy reflects how we approach travel retail. We don’t just put goods on a shelf. We ask: How can we create a moment, an experience – not just a purchase?
The name itself is also a reminder: high standards.
PM: You have set yourselves up as being an innovation-driven, agile ‘first mover’ in Travel Retail. Your products straddle souvenirs, food, hygiene and travel essentials – sectors already well covered by other established players. So how do you differentiate yourselves?
Sofia Keles (SK): Most players in travel retail focus on their one box: accessories, snacks, or souvenirs. We deliberately break those boxes. Our role is not to sell another pillow, another bag of nuts, or another keychain. Our role is to connect categories in ways that add meaning and increase value. We become a multi-category supplier for our partners.
That is why we created the Memorysavers platform. It is not a single product but an entire ecosystem that merges souvenirs, travel accessories, bespoke souvenirs and travel tech. A pillow becomes more than comfort – it becomes a memory trigger, infused also with NFC. A pin becomes more than decoration or a cheap present – it becomes a digital gateway to a story. We are the first in the travel industry to do this!
This is our USP: we build categories that connect memory, comfort, and function. Digital with physical. Where others see SKUs, we see concepts. That is how we differentiate.
PM: So what you are effectively saying is that you are prepared to take risks which others avoid. But you know how conservative retailers tend to be in this business. What has been their response to your strategic positioning? Do they ‘get’ what you are doing?
MK: Yes, retailers are cautious. Travel retail has a history of playing safe, with well-known brands and proven categories. But every buyer we meet tells us the same: conversion is stagnating if nothing new is added. All big players show more or less the same, so how can we differentiate?
The key is that our concepts are not mainstream. We offer the edge. Our concepts are authentic, rooted in design, memory and experience. That is why retailers don’t see them as risky, but as opportunity drivers. We combine safe products like Magnets, pins and key chains with innovation.
PM: What have been your major challenges?
MK: Our biggest challenge is managing focus and timing. As a lean team with a high innovation pace, we often have more opportunities than we would like to focus on.
The second challenge is the rhythm of retail. Buyers work with long cycles, often a year or more. Our innovation cycles are shorter. Aligning those two speeds requires patience, persistence, and clarity.
But in truth, this tension is also our strength. It pushes us to plan ahead, to prioritise ruthlessly, and to develop products that are not only creative but retail-ready.
PM: Let’s move into the product range itself. Is it fair to say that you have introduced unexpected, innovative products which balance necessity and novelty and that this has genuinely proved a winning formula with travellers? Sofia, perhaps you can give us specific examples of one or two in each of the categories you cover.
SK: Our business stands on three complementary pillars: Food, Non-Food, and Near-Food. Each pillar meets a clear traveller need while adding novelty and emotional value.
- Food (Impulse & Healthy)
Our owned brand Knüs offers premium, clean-label nuts designed for travellers – impulse-ready, healthy, and margin-strong. Beyond Knüs, we curate modern travel snacks (e.g. Long Chips, NutrinoLab, The Beginning). Food is our near-term growth engine, especially in European travel retail.
- Non-Food (Comfort & Tech)
Dizz.One is our travel line — from Destination Pillows to Dizz.One Connect, our new travel tech series (Environmental-friendly chargers, cables, adapters . We also bundle our DIZZ.ONE travel accessories with Retreev smart stickers and offer added value for free to Retreev products and valuables. These products transform travel essentials into meaningful, smart companions.
- Near-Food (Drugstore & Essentials)
We also build the drugstore category in travel retail. This includes travel-sized bodycare, sun protection, oral care, and impulse wellness products. What was once an afterthought is now a system-relevant category. By curating essentials in a compact, rotating assortment, we secure incremental sales and ensure travellers find what they need most – right when they need it.
- Souvenirs (Phygital by Memorysavers)
Here lies our most disruptive play. Memorysavers turns souvenirs into phygital experiences: NFC-enabled magnets, pins, and keychains – souvenirs you can tap. A physical keepsake connects to digital memories, creating a new souvenir ritual. This category bridges emotion and technology and will define mid-term growth.
Every pillar balances necessity with novelty.
With our portfolio, we are able to reach the modern traveller at different touchpoints of his journey: at airports, train stations, hotels, souvenir shops and even museums.
MK: Let me jump in here. Having my roots in the hospitality industry, I’ve learned to think like both hoteliers and their guests. What fascinates me is that today’s traveller approaches a duty-free store with very similar expectations as they do a hotel: convenience, digital-first solutions, and authentic storytelling that creates an emotional connection. Hotels are no longer just places to sleep, and duty free is no longer just transactional retail. Both are evolving into lifestyle hubs where Gen Z and modern travellers look for experiences that feel seamless, inspiring, and shareable. This is exactly where our products add value – by blending functionality, design, and a digital twist that speaks directly to this new generation of travelers.
PM: What about experiential promotions? What have you been proudest of so far?
MK: One of our proudest projects is the upcoming Memorysavers launch at Cannes 2025. Instead of a static shelf, we build an interactive space: travellers can touch, tap, scan, and explore bundles. The result is not just a product display but a memory station -Memory Savers!
This shift matters. In an airport, every square metre must sell, but also inspire. When travellers interact with Memorysavers, they don’t just buy, they experience. That creates higher conversion and stronger brand recall. Retailers see this, and it opens the door for more creative activations.
PM: I want to go back to your agility as a business. What will you do when some of the larger players see the niche you have created in the respective categories and choose to become ‘me too’s?
MK: Innovation attracts imitation – and we welcome it. If others follow, it validates that the category matters. But the real edge is speed. We can ideate, design and pilot in months, not years.
And, more importantly, we don’t just own SKUs, we own the category. Memorysavers is not one product – it is a platform. That makes it harder to copy and easier for us to expand. By the time others launch their first imitation, we will already be on our third iteration.
PM: So where do you see the greatest growth coming from – travel essentials, food or hygiene?
MK: In the short term, Food is our revenue engine. Healthy snacking is an unstoppable trend, and in travel retail, it is still underdeveloped. We fill that gap with quality and owned brands.
But for the mid-term, the defining play is Memorysavers. Here, souvenirs, accessories, and tech converge. This is where we create real category ownership. It is not incremental, it is transformative – a chance to redefine what souvenirs mean in the 21st century.
That dual approach – Food as the engine, Memorysavers as the future-defining category – gives us both stability and vision.
PM: Would you consider creating ‘own brand’ products for retailers?
We are open to bespoke editions, and we have proven it with projects like Destination Pillows designed for specific retailers. But we are not a white-label factory.
Our DNA is building categories with meaning. If a retailer wants their identity woven into that, we collaborate. But we never strip out the core idea. That way, partners get both their own signature and the strength of a proven ecosystem.
PM: You’ve talked across social media about the growing importance and usefulness of AI. What have been your key learnings?
MK: AI has been transformative for us as a lean company. It supports CRM follow-ups, dashboard analysis, content creation, and more. That means a team of ten can perform like a team of fifty.
But our key learning is this: AI does not replace people. It multiplies their impact. It gives us clarity, speed, and consistency, while keeping human creativity and relationships at the centre. That balance is the real advantage.
PM: So, if there are three things you want to say to the travel retail business – to existing and prospective retail partners – what would they be?
MK: The answer can be simply stated.
- We don’t sell single SKUs. We build categories. That means higher basket size and new sales, not cannibalisation.
- We connect emotion with function. Our products matter to travellers — they’re bought with both physical beauty and digital smartness to capture moments and memories.
- We are lean, fast, and reliable. Partners can trust us to deliver, iterate, and stay ahead of trends.
PM: Michael, Sofia, thank you for your time.
