Antalya Airport – where a retailer’s dreams come true

by Martin Moodie |
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Martin Moodie

Martin Moodie is the Founder & Chairman of The Moodie Report.

“It’s perfect… it’s what we dream of,” The Nuance Group Europe CEO Andrea Belardini can barely contain his excitement. “Look at all these green shopping bags, they’re everywhere!” he laughs.

The ebullient Italian has a right to be happy. Trying to film while walking around Nuance-NET Duty Free’s new duty free store at Antalya Airport on Friday turned out to be a dangerous exercise as I was in constant danger of bumping into customers, many of them burly Russian men, who were shopping as if there was no tomorrow. But there is – many tomorrows in fact as Nuance-NET has a 17-year contract here that runs till 2024.

[A sea of green (shopping bags)

Antalya (T1 and T2 combined) is The Nuance Group’s biggest European location in terms of both shop space and sales and it’s not hard to see why. I was there mid-afternoon on a Friday and the place was absolutely humming. Listen to my video imbedded in our main report and you’ll hear the buzz of the place, all from the excited chatter of customers as they shop.

But apparently this was nothing. Cengiz Iman, Managing Director of Nuance-NET Turkey, told me that business roughly doubles at peak times and when the high season arrives in mid-summer, the place really goes mad.

What a formula. A long-term contract that allows a retailer to invest in the environment, the offer, the promotion and the staff, all allied to an enviable  customer profile that lends itself to high spending across every category.

At industry conferences we often debate the downsides of short-term contracts. Perhaps next time round we should just show a silent video of what can happen if a retailer is granted a long-term presence at an airport. Except it wouldn’t be silent – as mentioned the noise of consumer excitement runs like a soundtrack  through each of the films I shot (look out for this week’s edition of The Moodie Report e-Zine to see more). Who benefits? The retailer, certainly. The airport, unquestionably. And most of all, the consumer, conclusively.

Nuance has done a formidable job in Europe over the past year with a series of high-class openings in locations such as Antalya T1, Geneva, Zürich and now here. Tomorrow the journey continues when the retailer’s Portuguese joint venture, Lojas Francas de Portugal, opens a further new concept store at Lisbon International Airport. My colleague Dermot Davitt has that gig and you can expect to see some more impressive sights.

What makes new stores such as Antalya T2 and Lisbon all the more noteworthy is that they are being opened against a backdrop of a troubled, depressed Europe, which is making business very tough in a number of continental markets.

Nuance is working overtime to offset that by growing footfall and penetration and thus drive up sales per passenger, whatever the traffic results. There’s no question that here at least it’s working. Since the T1 refurbishment a year ago, sales per passenger have risen +11%, and at T2 they’re already showing an approximate +14% uplift in the early days of trading.

Visiting new stores and terminals is my favourite part of the job. There’s nothing like being with a retailer’s management and staff on the big day, feeling their excitement, their passion and their sense of local pride. The Turkish team at Nuance-NET were overflowing with enthusiasm on Friday, as well as being the kindest of hosts. It was great to be there and once again I feel very blessed to do the job I do.

We closed out a long day with a marvellous meal outdoors with the Nuance-NET team, enjoying spectacular views of the dramatic Antalya coastline.

[Cengiz Iman, Managing Director of Nuance-NET Duty Free Turkey and The Nuance Group Europe CEO Andrea Belardini toast the succesful opening]

The contrast with the easyJet flight back to London that followed could not have been greater. Unfortunately I never got to shop duty free due to the airline’s non-allocated seating policy which means everyone crams into the boarding gate area long before they need to in an (often futile) attempt to get a decent seat.

I watched on as scores of passengers, including me, waited with mounting discomfort in the heat and increasing impatience for the plane to board – time that could have been spent in the shops and food & beverage outlets nearby. The lack of allocated seats (common to so many low cost carriers) is yet another example of aviation industry stakeholders not working together for the benefit of the consumer – and themselves.

Still, I quibble. When Nuance-NET does have its passengers in its midst, it is doing just about everything right in retaining their interest and driving spend. What would Nuance give for a few more Antalyas in its portfolio? A place where a retailer’s dreams really do come true.