The booming Russian travel retail market is high on the list of objectives for retailers and brands. A new store layout in Pulkovo St Petersburg airport featuring some of the world’s most prestigious whiskies offers the 4 million passengers travelling through Pulkovo each year a premium shopping experience.
Image 1: Connoisseurs' Lounge Pulkovo airport, St Petersburg, which offers the world’s finest (and most expensive) whiskies with private tastings.
While in most airport terminals, duty-free stores’ mix of products leans more heavily towards moderate price ranges with a small percentage of space given over to the super-premium top-end, where, for examples, a bottle of whisky may cost well in excess of $2000, at international terminals, especially those catering to the Russian and Chinese traveller, the product mix is often in the reverse. Duty-free display specialists, Concourse Display Management, sites the completed installations at international terminals in Moscow and St Petersburg as good examples.
The Connoisseurs’ Lounge at Pulkovo airport, unveiled in April 2014 by the Nuance Group follows a year of intensive work with local suppliers, brands and display management companies such as Concourse Display Management. The realisation of this project is an innovative retail concept, which, alongside premium and duty-free exclusives, has established a space entirely dedicated to offering super-premium brands through private tastings to the predominantly Russian and Chinese travellers passing through.
Rob Penn, Concourse Display Management CEO, explains that “the establishment of exclusive duty free spaces relies on two necessary features: understanding the travellers’ expectations based on where they come from and also taking into account the airport environment, to achieve the best display that effectively communicates the brands’ qualities”.
“For this deployment we knew the premium nature of the brands on offer and worked with those brand owners to ensure that the design of the display and the retail space accurately reflected those qualities. This is a vital element that contributes to the retail experience these high value passengers seek”.
Image 2: The main drinks section in Pulkovo airport, where even here, more space if given over to premium brands.
* Concourse understands the uniqueness of the duty-free experience for travellers and is committed to helping brands present their products in a way that emphasizes brands quality in a premium environment for a targeted clientele, with bespoke furniture. The company’s complete focus on duty-free and its global reach, with a presence in over 300 locations on the five continents, is a recognised quality label that has already convinced many brands.
