Vilnius, 18 October 2018. Travel Retail Vilnius, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gebr. Heinemann, yesterday officially opened its new main shop at Vilnius International Airport following a major conversion. Following the walkthrough principle, the Heinemann Duty Free and Travel Value Shop shines with a completely fresh design, lighting and space concept. At the heart of the renovation was the shopping experience for the approximately 4.6 million passengers who use the airport every year. From today, they can look forward to an expanded product range comprising international and local brands as well as a larger sales area.
The conversion of the shop follows the six-year contract extension agreed between Vilnius International Airport and Travel Retail Vilnius at the beginning of 2018. In addition to the conversion of the main shop, the remaining Heinemann Shops at Vilnius International Airport will also be successively converted and expanded. A converted shop in the non-Schengen area opened in July of this year. Four more shops with a completely new look are currently under construction in the Schengen area. Travel Retail Vilnius previously had ten shops distributed over a total of 1,060 square metres at the Lithuanian capital's airport. When the conversion phase is completed in March 2019, there will be six shops over 1,500 square metres.
"Vilnius International Airport is an extremely committed and professional partner with a very long-term focus. For this reason, we are a great match for each other and have been working for ten years now on continuously designing a tailor-made shopping experience. The new shops signal our joint further development and are a great confirmation of our long-term and fair partnership," says Bernard Schlafstein, Sales Director Eastern Europe & Central Asia at Gebr. Heinemann.
"All in one" in the walkthrough: The entire Heinemann world under one roof
The centrepiece of the new shopping experience for passengers is the spacious new walkthrough shop, which presents the entire Heinemann world under one roof over approximately 850 square metres. Awaiting customers here are the entire range of perfumes and cosmetics, tobacco products, confectionery and spirits and trendy accessories, which are geared towards the favourite brands of visitors to the Lithuanian capital. Travel Retail Vilnius is thus picking up on current trends in the Fashion & Accessories segment and offering passengers a wider choice with a completely new children's corner featuring an expanded range of toys as well as a new sunglasses area. New brands such as Tumi, Furla, Calvin Klein, Wolford and Love Moschino top off the shopping experience. The constantly increasing number of younger travellers are addressed in the shop with special digital offers, one of which is a planned in-store selfie point.
Focus on local brands
In addition, there will be continued focus on a large selection of popular local brands in four of Heinemann's Duty Free and Travel Value Shops. Alongside souvenirs, typical Lithuanian products from the world of accessories, toys, designers' art works and specialities from the fine food and liquor categories are particularly popular with travellers. Among the highlights here are Lithuania's largest spirits producer Stumbras, the renowned wine producer Gintaras Sinas and Naive's handmade chocolate.
The presentation of local brands plays an important role for the airport and was a key requirement for the contract extension. In the new walkthrough shop alone, around 120 square metres of sales space are dedicated exclusively to Lithuanian products.
“We can be proud that we have a lot of Lithuanian artists whose creativity, various art and gastronomic works make Lithuania famous in the whole world. We have been working very closely with our partners from Gebr. Heinemann in developing the vision of the new store so that Lithuanian creators would be seen. We appreciate this long-standing partnership, based on mutual understanding which has been successfully elaborated for more than 10 years so far and continues to grow. This partnership settles great results as these, and we are sure it will help meet the growing needs of Vilnius Airport's travelers, both on the wider range of services and the variety of goods”, said Laura Joffe, Executive Director of Lithuanian Airports.
She added: “The store reflects global trends and has been successfully implemented as the part of the terminal reconstruction of the commercial areas. The rapid growth of airport passenger flows obliges us to improve the capacity of our terminal. By increasing our commercial area we can offer our passengers even more convenient and faster services. Now we are successfully heading towards the further modernization of Vilnius Airport. We carry out all the work to ensure that our passengers experience services of the highest quality”.
50 to 60 per cent of passengers are Lithuanians
Lithuania is a strategically important market for Gebr. Heinemann because, like all Baltic states, it traditionally forms the bridge between Western and Eastern Europe. Lithuanians have also been very keen to travel since joining the EU in 2004. That is the reason why this country is an important part of our growth strategy. Over the past decade, we have invested heavily in the Lithuanian market, consolidating our position in the region. We are very satisfied with the results and will further strengthen our commitment here," says Gunnar Heinemann, co-owner of Gebr. Heinemann.
Lithuanians account for around 50 to 60 per cent of passengers at Vilnius International Airport. In addition to Lithuanians, Germans, Finns and Brits are among the strongest customer groups in the Heinemann Duty Free and Travel Value Shops at Vilnius International Airport.
Media contact:
Julia Knors
Corporate Communications Manager
+49 40 3010 2186
