Interview – Maison Francis Kurkdjian (continued)
Talking travel retail
Maison Francis Kurkdjian has upped its presence considerably in recent years though its same strict criteria of which doors to enter has remained, Chaya says.
“As a maison, we want to reach out to our customers in places where we can offer them extraordinary experiences. We’re not going to be in all airports because our approach is not to be mass marketed. The same way we went in domestic markets. We go to the most beautiful department stores and open boutiques in the most stunning malls in limited numbers.
“We focus on the experience in those malls, counters and boutiques and we are doing exactly the same when it comes to airports.
“We have seen airports change a lot over the past decade. They moved from utility spaces to experience spaces,” he continues. “When I was a child and I would go to an airport, it was completely transactional. The airport lounge didn’t exist. Travel retail was a small kiosk where you could buy a small bottle of perfume or a sandwich. Then it was about queuing in line to get into your flight that segment
“Today, we’ve seen airports grow into cities… where we connect more and spend more time and this time can be qualitative and experiential.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian is generating very strong sales at Zayed International Airport, according to ARI-led joint venture retailer Travel Retail Sales and Services {Photo: Martin Moodie}
And time is precisely what Maison Francis Kurkdjian intends to take. The brand’s strategy is to ensure everything it does in China is within what Chaya dubs “the genius of creativity”.
“We do not come to China with simplistic ideas just because we want to be competitive in a heavily marketing-led environment,” he explains. “We’re not going to use celebrities to endorse the brand just because we want people to know about the brand. We never use celebrities but we are very proud to see many celebrities naturally talk about the brand [globally] and this happens in China too.
“We’ve seen airports transform into places where you have access to wellbeing and selfcare through spas. You have lounges that take into account jetlag and offer the freedom to enjoy a great lunch, even gourmet cuisine. You can entertain, you can watch movies, you can play games, you can spend quality time with your family, and travel becomes only part of the journey. It’s no longer just a transactional suffering… it has become something that people enjoy.
“What we now see is that airports are places where you can have a very memorable and very sophisticated shopping experience. We’ve seen great success, for example, with our outlet in Charles de Gaulle, and we’re planning to expand into larger, nicer locations. It’s about moving away from small, transactional spaces to larger areas where customers can experience our collection, personalise their product, and learn more about our stories.
“In Asia, we’ve opened a big boutique in Hainan; we’ve expanded in Heathrow, and are opening a beautiful counter in São Paulo. We currently have about 30 offline locations, including a very nice counter in Dubai, that in terms of performance is very successful. Istanbul is a multi-million dollar airport for us; the same for Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Charles de Gaulle. So we are expanding in travel retail, but we’re doing it the same way we’ve expanded in the domestic market – qualitatively, passionately and with time.”
Francis Kurkdjian’s face always appears in brand merchadising (here at Dubai Duty Free), underlining what Chaya calls “the genius of creativity”
Quality in Qatar
Chaya is particularly excited about the brand’s performance with Qatar Duty Free at Hamad International Airport with two locations that were established during the airport’s renovation.
Because of the brand’s “extraordinary” performance, Maison Francis Kurkdjian is in talks with Qatar Duty Free to secure larger locations. But it’s not a case of size is everything, Chaya insists.
“We’re moving away from these beautiful small locations where you establish the fact that the brand is desirable. In order to sustain the productivity and the desirability, you need to move away from the transactional and into the experiential. For us this is very important,
“This is not a narcissistic move where we ask our partners for bigger locations just because we want to be big,” he comments. “We actually are asking our partners for the right location in order for us to move from transactional to experiential, where people can sit and explore the fragrances of Maison Francis Kurkdjian, learn more about the underlying stories that come with our brand, and have the pleasure of engraving and personalising their bottles.
“It’s all about creating a beautiful experience for our customers, not just in travel retail, but also in the domestic market.”
Discovering the goldmine of failure
From travel retail, this fascinating conversation moves to the journey every entrepreneur goes through, the gamut of emotions, the highs, the lows. What has been his favourite moment during that journey and his biggest challenge?
Chaya isn’t one for simplistic answers. “I always have a hard time pinpointing specific moments in the entrepreneurial journey because it is filled with diverse experiences,” he responds. “What I do know is that this journey consists of various elements – successes to be celebrated and protected, and failures that are a goldmine, because you learn from them.
“There are several quotes that continually inspire me. One (from Senegal) which says, ‘If you don’t know where you’re going, remember where you’re coming from’ (‘Lorsque tu ne sais pas où tu vas, regardes d’où tu viens’). This has always been a source of inspiration for me. Another is from Winston Churchill, who said, ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’
“So when you face difficult moments, learn from them, keep going, and keep fighting. The ability to overcome these challenges is what eventually leads to success. Mistakes truly are a goldmine – this is always something I remind my team about. And when you win, and when you are super successful, don’t lose sight of what’s coming tomorrow.
“People often tell Francis and I that we don’t take enough time to celebrate our victories, and it’s true. It’s a shame, we should take more time to celebrate, but we are always focused on what’s next.
“When you strive for excellence, a lot of people lose the value of return on investment and excellence. Of course, you need kindness in an environment that fosters excellence, otherwise it becomes very, very scary. But when you strive for excellence, you could just say, ‘Oh, I’m now at the top of my game. I’m going to stop exercising. I’m a celebrity ballet dancer, I’m a star dancer. I’ll be in the Paris ballet and I’m going to stop dancing.’
“But no, I’m going to dance even ten times more, because now people look at me even more. And there are other people looking up to me.”
Chaya is in free flow now, this rare and refreshing combination of adroit businessman and disciple of the creative process, telling it as he sees it. “We’re in a business where ideas are only 10% of the equation. It’s our ability to bring them to life with excellence, passion and hard work that makes the difference.
“So my life journey as an entrepreneur has been nothing less than a blessing. It’s been a lot of suffering – as you said blood, tears and sweat – but sweat can be good because it means you went to the gym, and tears can be tears of joy. So it’s a mix of all that. It’s not just hardship, it’s also a lot of joy.
“Maison Francis Kurkdjian is a human adventure where fragrance is the hero. And it is this beautiful environment where we come together with our teams – a diverse community, with artists, with our retail partners – around strong values, that have really paved the way to the success that we see ourselves enjoying today. But every day, when we wake up early in the morning, we think about what’s next. And how are we going to become even better in what we do.”
Of creativity, and embracing human differences – In conversation with Marc Chaya
Outside of your own business, who do you most admire in the creative world?
That one is easy. I grew up in a country at war. Lebanon used to be a fantastic architectural field with a lot of contemporary architecture and modernism. Everything got destroyed.
In my childhood, I was very often facing chaos, destruction, fear, anxiety and sorrow. So I found a refuge out of this chaos in art and literature. I developed this almost survival mode where harmony and beauty would uplift my life and make me feel better.
And so today, I’m very attracted to many fields of art, but most of them are in the fields of architecture. Because when you live in a beautiful home that is well designed, where the light enters, where the volumes speak to you, it makes your life better. I also admire the creative arts and Fine Arts with artists like Francis Bacon or more contemporary ones like Anthony Gormley. I need art in my life; I need music, I need harmony.
This is what makes me more connected to myself and helps me recharge and rebalance. So it’s all about, you know, fine art, decorative art design, architecture, in addition, of course, to fragrance, which is my passion.
“These values have paved the way to the success we find ourselves in today. Every day when we wake up early in the morning, we think about what’s next and how we can become even better at what we do.
I read about your love of different music and in particular that of Lebanese oud player and composer Rabih-Abou Khalil. It’s intensely atmospheric and urgent music, isn’t it?
What I love about Rabih-Abou Khalil is his music shows you how powerful it is when you combine different cultures. He is a jazzman but he combines classical jazz instruments such as the saxophone and the bass with the oud, the Arabic guitar with the derbeke, the Arabic drum. And he creates a whole new world out of the Arabic classical music, which we call tarab, and jazz. It’s extraordinary,
You can do simplistic commercial fusion music but Khailil’s work can also do extremely, elaborate creative and beautiful fusion music in different fields. And what I love in life is to see the wealth that you can create when you open up cultures to one another, rather than opposing them.
Rabih Abou Khalil (left) performing in Loule, Portugal {Photo: Shutterstock Official Account; Photographer: Filipe B. Varela}
For me, it always goes back to me living in a country where people valued their community above other peoples’ communities, their religion against other religions, their belief, their cuisine, the way they dress – everything has to be black and white. I am like this, you’re like that, and let’s fight, let’s kill each other and unfortunately that is the sad story of the world we live in.
“For me, looking at the wealth that comes from combining differences rather than opposing them and the value, wellbeing and progress that comes from that makes me want to fight for it every day. And it makes me think that anyone who believes in hatred, who believes in other people being inferior because they’re different is a primitive being. I feel that art is a way to connect us with progress and evolution.
Martin Luther King said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
And the light is education, the light is courage, the light is kindness, the light is all of these things. The light is something that can show the way and, thankfully, the arts in general, have been a very big component of that light.
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The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 334 | 12 May 2024
The Moodie Davitt eZine is published 14 times per year by The Moodie Davitt Report (Moodie International Ltd). © All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher. To find out more visit www.moodiedavittreport.com and to subscribe, please e-mail kristyn@moodiedavittreport.com