AS TALLINK GROUP Tallink spending evolves as sales hit $584m


Nearly 2,000 Tallink Group retail, F&B, warehouse, logistics and management staff attended the two-day Duty Free Fair in Tallinn, Estonia in May, after onboard retail and F&B sales hit €521.5m ($584m) in 2016 from a record 9.5m passengers.


shopping with more quality products – and this is not only in the fashion, accessories and jewellery areas, but also in delicatessen, and health products for themselves and the kids and there is a definite change here.” He added that passengers/


customers are also much more interested in where the products come from today and the ingredients – subjects they consistently quiz staff about.


Tallink’s new $243m, 2,800 passenger capacity ‘Megastar’ vessel was delivered in January. Doug Newhouse reports. W


hichever way you look at it, the AS Tallink Group’s onboard retail


and F&B sales of €521.5m ($584m) in 2016 is impressive when placed alongside its record 9.5m passenger total – up +5.4% – as carried by the ferry company’s 11 operational vessels last year. That number is all the more


impressive when compared with 2015’s €500.6m ($560.6m) and the fact that Tallink’s new $243m 2,800 passenger capacity ‘Megastar’ wasn’t even delivered until January of this year – complete with its 2,800sq m dual floor ‘Traveller Superstore’. AS Tallink Duty Free’s Director of Business Development Magnus


“In the Nordic region we are gradually seeing a different style of shopping altogether from what always used to be the booze cruise...”


Magnus Skjörshammer,


Director of Business Development, AS Tallink Duty Free


16 TRBUSINESS


Skjörshammer acknowledges that this is a huge onboard sales turnover and he says ‘it is no secret that shopping is over 50% of the turnover of the whole company’. But he is also quick to highlight the changing product mix on the duty free retail side of the business. “Some product groups are


diminishing, like tobacco, as well as certain spirits groups slightly and I would say this is an indication that these types of booze-cruise products are declining as people increasingly focus on more quality products. “At the same time we are seeing an


increase in other retail products as a percentage of the business, such as fashion and accessories and watches which is interesting.” Skjörshammer says that in


isolation, pure ‘booze cruise shopping’ as it is traditionally known in the Baltic and Nordic areas ‘is slightly down’, while quality liquor products are up – ‘even if they are not buying in such huge volumes’. He said: “In the Nordic region we


are gradually seeing a different style of shopping altogether from what always used to be the booze cruise. “What we now see is a gradual change towards more leisure style


Strong staff engagement These new trends were also very much in evidence at Tallink’s very lively Duty Free Fair held on 9-10 May 2017 in Tallinn and attended by nearly 2,000 staff and other visitors who were encouraged to interact directly with the ferry company’s suppliers. Commenting at the event on the


first day when there were no less than 900 visitors, Skjörshammer said: “A lot of the staff really are interested in the products and they all bring notepads. “They are really interested in it all


because they know this fair is the best place to get all of this information from the suppliers. “They are obviously schooled


in fragrances at the time that they see the products and this is fantastic because they then pass this information on to the passengers.” Skjörshammer said this works


particularly well in the worlds of wine and cosmetics where customers want to know about a particular wine or the kind of makeup they are using. He adds that of all the staff who


attend, ‘about 90%’ are those who directly interact with the passengers in the shops, bars or restaurants. The day time fair is obviously the most important aspect for them, but this is why the company likes to ‘put on the glam’ and reward them in the evenings with the awards ceremony,


JUNE 2017


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