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2022 was a milestone year for ̨��ɫ���� – one that’s been three years in the making. Leaving the pandemic behind, ̨��ɫ���� witnessed tremendous recovery and through it all, stayed true to its purpose of being the Traveler’s Best Friend.

To accomplish this, ̨��ɫ���� set three objectives for the year: Growth, focused on delivering sales expectations and expanding the ̨��ɫ���� footprint; Innovation, not only in technology but also in brand and store assortment; and “Working Better, Together,” continuing to reengineer the way ̨��ɫ���� works and raise operational standards through the development of its team, technology, and transformational processes.

These objectives were designed to position ̨��ɫ���� strategically in the new travel and retail environment, support the strategy, and align with the upcoming combination with Autogrill – and they’ve done just that! Here’s how:

The Roadmap For Growth

In a year packed with challenges, from supply chain issues to the labor shortage, ̨��ɫ���� consistently placed focus on accelerating its growth. Building on its recovery efforts from 2021, ̨��ɫ���� continued to work closely with its landlord and Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) Partners to quickly and strategically reopen even more of its stores, both in duty paid and duty free.

Soon, leisure and domestic travel started to pick up, and then international travel gradually began to return. By the time travel demand had increased significantly, ̨��ɫ���� was well prepared to drive the recovery of the travel retail industry – and that was its competitive edge. Not only did ̨��ɫ���� have the stores open, but it also had the team, brand assortment, digital infrastructure, and standards of excellence to meet the new retail environment and evolving consumer preferences. This allowed ̨��ɫ���� to drive strong results in sales recovery and performance while also having the ability to be agile in the way it served travelers.

At the same time it was reopening stores, ̨��ɫ���� was also busy expanding its North American footprint at a historically high rate. In the U.S., ̨��ɫ���� won new net business from coast-to-coast, from Colorado Springs and LAX Terminal 3 to Newark Terminal A. On contract extensions, ̨��ɫ���� extended its agreements in markets like Las Vegas, Birmingham, Charleston, and Ontario, which included the redevelopment of existing stores into new concepts, and in Canada, ̨��ɫ���� extended several of its duty free contracts.

These successful business development efforts continued to demonstrate the strength of ̨��ɫ����’s portfolio, Traveler’s Best Friend service, and operational excellence while distinguishing ̨��ɫ���� and its ACDBE Partners as a trusted concessionaire in the industry.

Building The Most Comprehensive Brand Portfolio

No matter what store they visit, travelers can have a one-of-a-kind shopping experience, thanks to ̨��ɫ����’s innovative retail formats and differentiated brand assortment.

Across its four business pillars – Travel Convenience, Specialty Retail, Duty Free, and Food & Beverage (F&B) – ̨��ɫ���� worked to develop the very best retail concepts. With its first-to-market concept, Evolve, ̨��ɫ���� offered shop-in-shops from specialty retail brands that resonated most with travelers in each market alongside its iconic travel convenience offering. ̨��ɫ���� exclusive brands, Ink by ̨��ɫ���� and Brookstone, continued to provide product selections that couldn’t be found anywhere else. Local stores like Civil Rights Trail Market and Boardwalk by ̨��ɫ���� featured design elements that paid homage to each city and its unique history. And ̨��ɫ���� Nonstop + Decanted, a combination wine bar/restaurant and digital travel convenience store, allowed ̨��ɫ���� to demonstrate that it could successfully bring together convenience and F&B for a hybrid concept.

Aside from its exclusive concepts, ̨��ɫ���� also introduced new standalone stores from its brand partners. This included plans for its first-ever Chick-fil-A and Starbucks stores as well as new Sunglass Hut stores as the brand’s exclusive operator in travel retail in North America.

As ̨��ɫ����’s portfolio was expanding with new stores, so was its product offering. With the changes in shopping preferences and new trends influencing purchasing behaviors, ̨��ɫ���� evolved its portfolio to not only meet those demands, but exceed them as well.

The first area of focus was local. From apparel and souvenirs to confections and food, ̨��ɫ���� expanded the range and exposure of locally made products across all of its stores, and gave small businesses a dedicated space to showcase their work.

At LAX, ̨��ɫ���� partnered with “CRAFTED at the Port of Los Angeles” for its future Evolve store to feature products from up-and-coming local artisans. Throughout Vancouver and Toronto, the duty free stores carried “Exploring Canada,” a new proprietary brand line of souvenirs. In Birmingham, the Sweet Home Alabama store carried items from renowned local chefs as well as Sweet Home Alabama branded products. These were just a few examples of how ̨��ɫ���� brought a sense of place to life within its stores, and tailored it specifically to each location.

In addition to localization, there was also a demand for emerging and “on-trend” categories. In health and wellness, ̨��ɫ���� expanded its offering of wellness products in Brookstone, introduced a “Mind, Body & Soul” shop-in-shop in Vancouver, and launched a healthy snack program in over 100 travel convenience stores. With an emphasis on sustainability and brand accessibility, ̨��ɫ���� carried more than 300 sustainable products in its duty free stores, and partnered with Russell Wilson and Ciara’s purpose-driven fashion house, The House of LR&C.

Other examples included the continued strength of ̨��ɫ����’s electronics offering, and the newly launched “Building Back Better With Books” program to cater to travelers’ growing demand for printed books with the expert curation they have come to expect from ̨��ɫ���� stores.

By innovating its offering under the Destination 2027 strategy, ̨��ɫ���� brought exclusive experiences and fan-favorite products to travelers where and when they were shopping.

Innovating For The Future Of Travel

Meeting travelers where they are with convenient and frictionless experiences has never been more important. That’s exactly why ̨��ɫ���� teams worked together to create a holistic travel experience with digital touchpoints across every part of the journey.

The first step was expanding the opportunities to engage with travelers before, during, and after they traveled. With the launch of the Red By Dufry loyalty program in its travel convenience stores, ̨��ɫ���� was able to engage with travelers beyond the store like never before through personalized and exclusive offers. Coupled with the existing program in duty free, these omnichannel offerings allowed ̨��ɫ���� to reach more travelers, more often, while building on its brand loyalty.

To complement these new omnichannel offerings, ̨��ɫ���� then worked to make it even easier, faster, and more convenient for travelers to shop. This vision took shape in two ways – through payment options and digitally enabled stores. By investing in a significant expansion of its self-checkout and mobile Point Of Sale capabilities, ̨��ɫ���� created a retail environment where travelers virtually never had to wait, and team members could spend more time serving travelers.

And with ̨��ɫ���� Nonstop – powered by Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology and Amazon One – travelers could enjoy a frictionless and completely autonomous shopping experience. In fact, ̨��ɫ���� opened not one or two, but four ̨��ɫ���� Nonstop stores during the year, with seven of these cutting-edge stores now open.

By putting the traveler at the center of the travel experience revolution – in alignment with Destination 2027 – ̨��ɫ���� never stopped innovating and laid the foundation for digital growth for the future.

Delivering An Operational Improvement Culture To Remain The Traveler’s Best Friend

The technology and backend investments ̨��ɫ���� made under its “Working Better, Together” (WBT) program helped transform its business – allowing it to innovate its operations, become more agile through automation, and raise its standards of excellence.

With new tools and systems, ̨��ɫ���� was able to introduce innovations, like self-checkout and omnichannel sales, faster and seamlessly. With this infrastructure in place, ̨��ɫ���� shifted its focus to automation to be more effective in the way it works. By leveraging more data and enhanced reporting, ̨��ɫ���� was able to make faster and more informed decisions. This was extremely important for inventory management, especially to address remaining supply chain issues. From reducing low-performing inventory to centralizing auto-replenishment, ̨��ɫ���� ensured that its stores were stocked with the products travelers were looking for.

The final part of the WBT program was a focused and deliberate effort to strengthen operational excellence. ̨��ɫ���� spent the year putting more resources towards standardizing its store operating procedures to be more efficient in addition to unifying its in-store merchandising and marketing programs.

These concerted efforts allowed ̨��ɫ���� to meet its strategic goals, improve its productivity, and completely reengineer the way it worked to remain the Traveler’s Best Friend in the post-pandemic world of travel.

At The Heart Of It All

Behind each ̨��ɫ���� store is the best team in the industry. From the corporate team members in New Jersey, Georgia, Toronto, and Vancouver – to the frontline team members throughout North America – to the Distribution Center workers travelers don’t often see, ̨��ɫ����’s workforce is made up of a diverse group of individuals united by the Core Values of service, respect, passion, dedication, teamwork, and innovation.

Throughout the year, ̨��ɫ���� worked to strengthen its total rewards package to meet the needs of those team members and invest in what’s important to them. Some of the immediate changes included expanding pay delivery methods, introducing new benefits perks, offering additional recognition bonuses, and providing more mental health resources.

But the work didn’t stop there. To ensure the team had the tools to succeed, ̨��ɫ���� helped further their career advancement through new and continuous learning and development programs as well as debt-free degree programs.

For those efforts and more, ̨��ɫ���� was recognized in report as a great place to work and grow a career, and for having a great workplace culture.

2022 was a powerful reminder of how entrepreneurial the ̨��ɫ���� team is and how instrumental they are in shaping the future of the company, especially under the Destination 2027 strategy. That is the ̨��ɫ���� difference.

Travel Can Change The World

As one of the largest travel retailers in North America, ̨��ɫ���� has the opportunity to use its size and scale to make a difference; to do better and be better every day. ̨��ɫ���� is dedicated to its Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) goals, which guide the Destination 2027 strategy and is how ̨��ɫ���� works to make an impact across its four priority areas: Employee Experience, Customer Focus, Protecting the Environment, and Trusted Partner.

During the year, ̨��ɫ���� continued to break down barriers and create pathways for more diverse representation and equitable opportunities throughout its business. That included launching ̨��ɫ����’s first Unconscious Bias training, participating in a global Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) survey led by Dufry, and hosting events in recognition of D&I moments like International Women’s Day and Pink Shirt Day.

Not only was it important for ̨��ɫ���� to create opportunities for its team members, but also for the communities where they live and work. In its largest fundraising year ever, ̨��ɫ���� collected more than $1.7M from travelers through its donation round-up program. Those funds benefitted The Disasters Emergency Committee’s work in Ukraine humanitarian relief as well as Communities In Schools’ (“CIS”) dropout prevention efforts, both at their National Office and in 29 local community affiliates.

In addition to raising funds, ̨��ɫ���� team members throughout North America committed their time and talent to their communities, whether they were raising awareness for Movember and its support for men’s mental health issues, participating in a coat and shoe drive, or setting up a pop-up shop for service members during Fleet Week in New York City.

On the sustainability front, ̨��ɫ���� also made notable progress in using its business to positively impact and protect the planet. One of the ways this was done was by setting new and ambitious climate goals. ̨��ɫ���� pledged to support as well as transition its own fleet to electric vehicles by 2027.

Lockstep with those efforts, the duty free teams partnered with One Tree Planted to help with global reforestation. With each qualifying purchase, a tree was planted, which resulted in more than 5,000 trees being planted during the length of the campaign.

And lastly, ̨��ɫ���� worked with its top Vendors to certify a global Supplier Code of Conduct to ensure partners uphold the highest standards of conduct and are aligned with ̨��ɫ����’s and Dufry’s values.

It’s clear. ̨��ɫ����’s purpose to be a best friend doesn’t just apply to people – it’s also about making a difference in the community and on the planet.

Award-Winning Travel Retail Experience

From enhancing the travel experience to delivering excellence in customer service, ̨��ɫ���� is one of the most awarded travel retailers in the industry.

During the Airport Business Diversity Conference hosted by the American Minority Advisory Council (AMAC), ̨��ɫ���� was recognized with the . This award was in celebration of ̨��ɫ����’s robust Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Partners (ACDBE) program and active participation and support of AMAC. 

̨��ɫ���� also received two awards for its community engagement and sustainability initiatives, which acknowledged the significance of the ESG strategy to ̨��ɫ����’s business. At the annual Communities In Schools Leadership Town Hall, ̨��ɫ���� was honored with the “2022 All In For Students Philanthropic Partner Award” for its long-standing partnership and support of the CIS mission. Additionally, in Vancouver, the duty free team received the “2022 YVR Green Excellence Award” for its efforts to reduce energy and plastic usage.

As proud as it was of its external awards, ̨��ɫ���� made sure to celebrate its own people as well – because their hard work directly contributed to the awards ̨��ɫ���� won. In December, members of the ̨��ɫ���� team came together in-person for the first time in three years for the Management Seminar & Vendor Show. There, ̨��ɫ���� recognized the top Operations leadership as well as six individuals across the organization who embodied the company’s Core Values and serve as the Traveler’s Best Friend everyday

Coming at a pivotal time in ̨��ɫ����’s transformational journey, these recognitions solidified ̨��ɫ����’s position as an industry leader and reaffirmed the ongoing efforts to support its team members, its travelers, its partners, and its communities.

The Journey To 2027

What a year it’s been! Looking back on 2022, ̨��ɫ���� found new meaning to being the Traveler’s Best Friend, delivered industry-leading store concepts, built even more brand loyalty through digital innovation, and reaffirmed its commitment to its people and its communities.

Heading into 2023 – and looking ahead to 2027 – ̨��ɫ���� will focus on four key goals: leading a travel retail revolution; expanding its presence in North America; prioritizing operational improvement; and putting people and sustainability at the center of it all. As part of this, ̨��ɫ���� looks forward to the significant expansion of its F&B business driven by the combination with Autogrill.

Thank you for being part of ̨��ɫ����’s journey! The future looks even brighter in 2023.