Lagardère Travel Retail

Lagardère Travel Retail is a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, a global leader in content production and distribution, which is involved in the full range of Duty Free categories from liquor, perfume and cosmetics, tobacco, fashion, accessories, confectionery and fine food. The firm started as a bookstore in 1852 in Paris which then expanded to become one of the leading businesses in the sector. 

Moreover, Lagardère Travel Retail specialises in 3 main sectors:

• Travel Essentials
• Duty Free & Fashion
• Foodservice

Furthermore, Lagardère Travel Retail also created its own store concepts tailored to the needs of each region, providing travel goods, gifts, souvenirs, electronics and multimedia products. 

Lagardère Travel Retail established partnerships with TripAdvisor Premium, Too Good To Go, Grab, ZeCharger, SmartHamster and others, to provide its customers with digital facilities.

Finally, the company owns restaurants in tranzit areas providing fresh and simple high-quality food. 

In 2015, the company created its foodservice business line, So! Coffee and Lagardère Travel Retail launched the New Age Beauty concept in Paris in 2018 as well as other foodservice chains such as 28 Smullers shops, which was acquired in 2019.

Lagardère Travel Retail operates in 42 countries including Germany, Africa, France, Czech Republic, Poland and many others. The firm also partnered with Pierre Herme to start its operations in Japan in 2020.

In 2022, Lagardere Travel Retail was launched in Peru and joined forces with WHW in the middle east. Additionally, the world’s largest Aelia Duty Free store was opened the previous year in Rome.

Many partnerships with renowned chefs such as Thierry Marx, Michael Symon, David Bull and others, were made to introduce innovative concepts to the firm’s operations.

In addition, Lagardère Travel Retail owns over 4850 stores in 260 airports and 710 railway stations.

In 2021, Lagardère Travel Retail achieved a turnover of €2.9 billion and currently employs 20 000 employees. In addition, the travel retail sector represents 39% of the total group’s turnover.

Several awards was won by Lagardère Travel Retail including Top Employer Award 2020, Airport Smoothie or Juice Bar of the Year 2019 and many others by The Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Awards, as well as FAB Superstars 2021.

Lagardère Travel Retail works with numerous well-known and luxury brands such as Fendi, Hugo Boss, Levi’s, M&M’s, Burger King, Starbucks and many more.

Furthermore, Lagardère Travel Retail operates its own brands which are as follows(not limited to):

• Relay: offers a variety of travel essentials in 1037 stores across 14 countries
• Tech2go: provides digital tools in 9 stores in 3 countries
• Aelia Duty Free: offers perfumes, tobacco, makeup and many others through 146 stores in 15 countries
• Hubiz: offers fresh food to go via 72 stores in 4 countries

In 2019, the firm launched PEPS (Planet.Ethics.People.Social), a CSR strategy to help the environment.  Lagardère Travel Retail is planning on banning non-reusable plastics and reducing 50% of its food waste by 2025. Moreover, Lagardère Travel Retail donated €700 000 to charities.