How Benny Klepach's company turned 3Sixty

But 3Sixty is not purely a defensive move, Klepach insists. Travel retail and duty free offer a fantastic consumer springboard, he says, provided both pitch and platform are right. “The retailing of duty free has always been a major showcase and iconic for the brands,” he comments. “Consumers want to be able to get holistic service from duty free. So, the name is extremely significant in terms of our ability to service them.”

Klepach must have grown weary of hearing inflight retail dubbed the dinosaur of travel retail down the years. If he’s heard one criticism of ‘meal trolley shopping’ he’s heard a million. So, there’s no masking the satisfaction he takes from the fact that via deals such as the company’s joint venture in Singapore with Singapore Airlines and SATS – and with others in the pipeline – a reinvented airline shopping platform may be ideally positioned to take on a whole new allure.

“We now feel that inflight is the future,” he says. “You’ll have to put your seatbelt on and watch it, because inflight will now be the centrepiece. While it was poo-poo’ed and vilified and looked down on by the vendors, it’s back and it’s back with a vengeance. The airlines realise it, the consumer realises it and all our partners realise it… they understand the value that it brings and how important it is.

“And we are well poised. We took our lumps and bruises along the way and, as you know, many people didn’t survive in this business. But we stayed committed to it, we re-based the business but we re-based it very healthily. We didn’t just flip a switch and say, ‘We’re going to be 3Sixty and we’re going to do digital, we’re going to do home delivery, e-commerce or omni-channel.’

“In fact, we sat with our partners, the Estée Lauders of the world, and strategised on what was it that they were looking for. With companies such as them and L’Oréal and LVMH, we sat and strategised on what was important for these vendors on inflight and omni-channel. We didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes. We were very respectful of what were the parameters. Pernod Ricard, for example, played a big role on what they wanted – they were very clear.

“We tailored it to the vendors’ needs, to make sure that we were compliant with what they wanted and that we were not poaching on anybody’s territory,” Klepach insists. “The airlines played a role with us and our vendors in modelling it. And we’re so proud of the announcement we made with Singapore Airlines, because that is the purest form of what the industry is looking for.”

Klepach is not a man given to interviews. He prefers to let his work – and now his Executive Vice Chairman Roberto Graziani – do the talking. But like any entrepreneur who’s first survived and then flourished, he’s proud of what he’s created. Though he’s got an important business lunch to make, he insists on taking me on a tour of the impressive DFASS offices and warehouse.

Insiders say he may just be the most-connected man in travel retail. “I’ll call you back,” is his constant refrain as his phone buzzes relentlessly during this brief but revealing interview. Here’s a man constantly on the move, always trying to anticipate tomorrow rather than react to it. He’s made plenty of money down the years but you get the feeling that it’s the deals and drama and sense of constantly having to think on his feet that drives him today more than the cash.

“I’m very committed to working and I’m not afraid of it,” he says. “And I’m not afraid of re-setting the benchmarks of the industry. I’ve done it in inflight and I’m going to do it now in digital.”