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FEATURED INTERVIEW: ETRC
New ETRC President keen to revive duty free’s ‘tour de force’
Recently appointed European Travel Retail Confederation (ETRC) President Nigel Keal tells Luke Barras-Hill the time is now to strengthen travel retail’s hand at EU policy level while reigniting some of the trade’s nostalgic consumer appeal. He provides an update on the association’s activities in the company of Secretary General Julie Lassaigne.
Y
ou were recently announced as the ETRC’s new President. How are
you settling in and is the day-to- day role more or less what you expected? Nigel Keal (NK): I’m settling in. ETRC is nothing new to me. I’ve been on the Management Board and before that the Supervisory Board, so the ways of working are not new. It’s a case of trying to establish myself and making sure I can fill the shoes of the two previous Presidents (Frank O’Connell and Sarah Branquinho) who have done a great job. I am happy to try to enhance ETRC with the knowledge, experience and contacts I’ve gained over the years.
Many of our readers will know you personally and professionally from your days with Allders (later Nuance) and World Duty Free. Tell us a bit more about how you are drawing on your experiences across merchandising, operations and procurement to act rather than react to changes in the regulatory landscape? Interesting question. This could be the focal point for the short term as far as what I want to do with Julie (Lassaigne) and the Board in setting some new objectives and strategy that is a little bit more ‘aggressive’ if you like on the ‘proactive’ rather than the ‘reactive’. Reacting is always what the ETRC has been very good at – and will continue to be good at – but we need to change that. We would like to start to re-engage on travel retail; now is the time to re-look at that with new personnel in the EU Commission to start to explore whether we can
OCTOBER 2019
Nigel Keal was elected as ETRC President in July
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put that back on the table as far as creating if you like travel retail as a separate entity when it comes to policies. Back in the late 1990s/early 2000s that was looked into and we’d like to start to look at what options there are. The second part is how we can act as a conduit to help the industry regain some of the cutting edge that we once had, for instance on pricing. We need to see what we can do to engage the industry to start working a little closer together.
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Major UK airports are being instructed to introduce 3D scanning equipment by the end of 2022. The move is meant to ease security checks, with the implication that liquids and bags can be kept in hand baggage and the 100ml rule may no longer apply. Is 2022 a realistic timeframe? Julie Lassaigne (JL): The ETRC Is a member of SAGAS (EU’s Stakeholder
Advisory Group for Aviation Security) and discussions on new security screening equipment has been taking place for almost 15 years. I would expect this to be a major change in the next five to 10 years. There is still some work to be done on the commercial side as it’s very expensive. Until we see that sort of equipment rolled out at lots of airports, it will take a long while. As ETRC, our position has always been in favour of this security system, which basically favours passengers and puts them in a positive mood to enjoy experiences at the airport. We will need to see how things are implemented and information communicated to passengers. We want to avoid any type of confusion
“Reacting is always what the ETRC has been very good at – and will continue to be good at – but we need to change that.”
Nigel Keal, President, ETRC
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