The Trinity Forum – SSP & Dubai Duty Free
Matching sales with traveller growth
SSP Group CEO Patrick Coveney and Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi took part in an engaging discussion about how their respective businesses are driving penetration and conversion today.
Cidambi said that a drop in penetration and spend per passenger, alongside continuous price increases from brands, have created a disconnect between passenger growth and sales for Dubai Duty Free.
Ramesh Cidambi (left) and Patrick Coveney talked consumers, collaboration and challenges with Martin Moodie
Commenting on how the retailer is navigating that landscape, Cidambi said: “We are talking to each and every employee to motivate them to drive penetration and conversion on the shop floor.
“The second aspect is communication. It’s a difficult time, spend and penetration is down and all of us need to sharpen up,” Cidambi added.
“The last aspect is to continue investing in the retail offer. We’re renovating our Arrivals stores in terminals 1, 2 and 3 with new stores in concourses B and A opening soon. As simplistic as this sounds, the reality is that if the offer is fresh and the retail area is attractive – passengers will spend more money.”
Representing food & beverage powerhouse SSP, Coveney said that double-digit growth in its business was being driven by several key factors.
“The last aspect is to continue investing in the retail offer. We’re renovating our Arrivals stores in terminals 1, 2 and 3 with new stores in concourses B and A opening soon. As simplistic as this sounds, the reality is that if the offer is fresh and the retail area is attractive – passengers will spend more money.”
Representing food & beverage powerhouse SSP, Coveney said that double-digit growth in its business was being driven by several key factors.
“We’re having good results on average spend. We operate six formats: bars, casual dining, quick-service restaurants, coffee shops, restaurants and lounges. We wanted to have more format-specific expertise in those six areas.
“I felt that we were not strong enough in our bar and casual-dining proposition and put a lot of effort behind that in terms of design capability, customer engagement and the brands we’ve pulled in globally and locally. As a result, we’ve seen a huge step up in sales for bars and casual dining. The essence is trying to understand who our customers are and what our clients are looking for.”
Partnership is crucial to the SSP approach, Coveney said: “We are committed to growing the pie together. To do that we need to think of the channel as a single system. This idea that the commercial model is fixed is a total nonsense. The models are innovating just as quickly as the customer propositions are innovating.”
Partner’s message
The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 341 | 4 December 2024
The Moodie Davitt eZine is published 14 times per year by The Moodie Davitt Report (MA Travel Retail). © 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