AFRICA: TOURVEST RETAIL SERVICES


Africa distribution business continues to excel for Tourvest despite pandemic


The Covid-19 crisis has severely impacted Tourvest Retail Services’ inflight and ground store operations in Africa but the alcohol distribution business appears to be going from strength to strength, as Andrew Pentol discovers.


passenger volumes and decreased flight schedules.” At the time of writing, Ethiopian


Airlines’ flight schedule was back to around 30% of 2019 levels, although passenger numbers are significantly less. Tourvest was generating 25% of last year’s revenue on the Ethiopian carrier. Buy-on-board food and beverage


Above: An artist’s impression of a Tourvest departures store at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia. The store is due to begin trading in Q1 2021.


A


s Africa gradually emerges from the coronavirus (Covid-19)


pandemic,


Tourvest Retail Services has the clear objective of being an onboard digital travel retail provider. In an exclusive interview with


TRBusiness, Clive Jones, CEO, Tourvest Retail Services says the company has invested in a full omnichannel e-commerce platform, which replaces its standalone pre- order site. The new e-commerce platform will


enable Tourvest to offer a sense of personalisation, understand historic purchases, target people based on their preferences and engage with customers at home. As a travel retail provider


“Our technology is ready but has not been launched in Africa as a result of the pandemic. When our airlines re-start the technology will be on board.”


Clive Jones, CEO, Tourvest Retail Services


36 TRBUSINESS


offering onboard retail and duty free programmes, Tourvest Retail Services’ biggest African customer is Ethiopian Airlines, on which it runs inflight duty free services. Tourvest also operates the duty free business on Kenya Airways (and its low-cost carrier component Jambojet Limited) and South African Airways, which received another government bailout of $640 million at the beginning of November.


New technology at the ready Additionally, Tourvest operates on Mango Airlines and TAAG Angola Airlines and was close to launching on South African low-cost carrier Kulula.com before the pandemic. Jones says: “When our business emerges from the pandemic, we will be a digital travel retail provider. This is absolutely clear. Our technology is ready, but has not been launched in Africa as a result of the pandemic. When our airlines re-start the technology will be on board.” He adds: “We still have our


pre-order platform on the likes of Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya Airways, but it is very difficult to engage with customers using this method due to the lower


is currently unavailable on Mango Airlines and could be re-introduced in the first quarter of 2021. Tourvest also re-started its Kenya Airways retail operations on a trial basis, but business was stopped due to inconsistent flight numbers. Jones explains: “Sales and flights


need to be consistent to cover the start-up costs of actually trading.” Aside the company’s inflight operations, which


have


unsurprisingly taken a big hit, the Tourvest Duty Free downtown distribution business is continuing to distribute alcohol products into African duty free stores, embassies and border points. “Based in Cape Town, the business


is doing well and even running profitably, which is unheard of in this period. Alcohol — rightly or wrongly — is still a go-to product on the African continent and we are servicing that demand. It is going quite well.” In Nigeria, where Tourvest


operates one departures duty store in partnership with Gebr. Heinemann at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, business has been more challenging to say the least. Protests against police brutality


in the country resulted in the recent closure of the airport stores, which have been trading since 2015. Jones, who says the Nigeria


business was performing well before the pandemic says: “The unrest has


NOVEMBER 2020


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