TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: "Alpha introduces StriVectin to UK travel retail - 22/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Rebecca Mann
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UK. Alpha Airports Shopping has become the first retailer to stock the intensive stretch-mark and wrinkle cream StriVectin in UK airports.

In the UK StriVectin was previously available only in department stores such as Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Space NK. Alpha is the first to launch the product outside the domestic market, stocking the range in Manchester and Birmingham Airports exclusively.

StriVectin is known in the US as the only clinically proven bio-active topical stretch mark and anti-wrinkle cream. The product was originally formulated as a concentrate to counter stretch-marks, but has been widely adopted as a facial anti-wrinkle treatment.

Alpha is stocking the StriVectin line at “great value” prices. StriVectin-SD 150ml retails at £114 with Alpha, compared with a price of £135 domestically. The 50ml version is £67 (versus £79); the 40ml £50 (versus £59).

Jacqui Buckley, leading Beauty Buyer for Alpha Airport Shopping, commented: “There has been a surge in interest from customers in these types of products over recent years, which is why Alpha is looking to permanently invest in this cosmetics category.

“Although the UK market for [such] cosmetic creams is still relatively young, we expect the huge success of the cosmeceutical category in the US to be replicated in the UK.” "

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: "Alpha introduces StriVectin to UK travel retail - 22/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Rebecca Mann
Email Print
UK. Alpha Airports Shopping has become the first retailer to stock the intensive stretch-mark and wrinkle cream StriVectin in UK airports.

In the UK StriVectin was previously available only in department stores such as Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Space NK. Alpha is the first to launch the product outside the domestic market, stocking the range in Manchester and Birmingham Airports exclusively.

StriVectin is known in the US as the only clinically proven bio-active topical stretch mark and anti-wrinkle cream. The product was originally formulated as a concentrate to counter stretch-marks, but has been widely adopted as a facial anti-wrinkle treatment.

Alpha is stocking the StriVectin line at “great value” prices. StriVectin-SD 150ml retails at £114 with Alpha, compared with a price of £135 domestically. The 50ml version is £67 (versus £79); the 40ml £50 (versus £59).

Jacqui Buckley, leading Beauty Buyer for Alpha Airport Shopping, commented: “There has been a surge in interest from customers in these types of products over recent years, which is why Alpha is looking to permanently invest in this cosmetics category.

“Although the UK market for [such] cosmetic creams is still relatively young, we expect the huge success of the cosmeceutical category in the US to be replicated in the UK.” "

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: "Alpha introduces StriVectin to UK travel retail - 22/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Rebecca Mann
Email Print
UK. Alpha Airports Shopping has become the first retailer to stock the intensive stretch-mark and wrinkle cream StriVectin in UK airports.

In the UK StriVectin was previously available only in department stores such as Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and Space NK. Alpha is the first to launch the product outside the domestic market, stocking the range in Manchester and Birmingham Airports exclusively.

StriVectin is known in the US as the only clinically proven bio-active topical stretch mark and anti-wrinkle cream. The product was originally formulated as a concentrate to counter stretch-marks, but has been widely adopted as a facial anti-wrinkle treatment.

Alpha is stocking the StriVectin line at “great value” prices. StriVectin-SD 150ml retails at £114 with Alpha, compared with a price of £135 domestically. The 50ml version is £67 (versus £79); the 40ml £50 (versus £59).

Jacqui Buckley, leading Beauty Buyer for Alpha Airport Shopping, commented: “There has been a surge in interest from customers in these types of products over recent years, which is why Alpha is looking to permanently invest in this cosmetics category.

“Although the UK market for [such] cosmetic creams is still relatively young, we expect the huge success of the cosmeceutical category in the US to be replicated in the UK.” "

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: Nelson steers BAA towards ‘rapid and demonstrable increase in efficiency and performance’ – 22/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Martin Moodie
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BAA Chief Executive Stephen Nelson says he is determined to achieve a "rapid and demonstrable increase in the efficiency and performance of the business".
UK. BAA this evening announced a series of top-level management changes as Chief Executive (and former Retail Director) Stephen Nelson pushed forward his agenda of increasing the company’s efficiency and performance.

José Leo, Group Finance Director of Amey plc, the business services group, is to join the UK airports group as Chief Financial Officer.

Nelson said: “José brings very valuable experience in leading Amey´s restructuring process in the UK, as well as a decade of success within Ferrovial Group in various managerial posts. In a new era, he will help us focus upon achieving higher performance.”

Leo succeeds Margaret Ewing, who has decided to step down from BAA. He was appointed Group Finance Director of Amey plc in May 2003. Before that he was Managing Director of Ferrovial Telecomunicaciones. Before joining Ferrovial, he was Chief Financial Officer and Manager of Business Development at Agroman, the Spanish construction company which was acquired by Ferrovial.

Leo said: “I am delighted to join BAA, which has responsibility for some of the UK’s most vital assets.”
BAA also announced today that Ian Hargreaves, Corporate & Regulatory Affairs Director, has decided to leave the company.

Nelson said: “Margaret and Ian have done a first class job for BAA. They have helped me manage the transition to new ownership, and both are now looking forward to new challenges. I wish them every success in the future.”

He added: “The new Executive Committee will be smaller and sharply focused, reflecting my determination to achieve a rapid and demonstrable increase in the efficiency and performance of the business.”

In line with this approach, a number of other appointments were also announced today.

Duncan Garrood, currently Divisional Director responsible for Gatwick and Stansted airports and for most of BAA’s international activities, takes on a new role as Commercial Director. His portfolio includes BAA’s retail and marketing activities, supply chain and relationships with airlines. He joined BAA in 2004 after a career in Unilever.

Donal Dowds, also a Divisional Director, becomes Director of Operations, taking responsibility for Gatwick and Stansted airports, along with investment in information technology, surface access, planning and aviation policy. He joined BAA in 1979, overseeing the rapid growth of BAA’s Scottish businesses.

Stephen Baxter, Managing Director of BAA Scotland, joins the Executive Committee, taking responsibility for all of BAA’s activities in Scotland, along with Southampton Airport and the BAA shared business service centre, which is based in Glasgow. He joined BAA from Black & Decker in 2002.

Duncan Bonfield, Director of Corporate Affairs, takes over Ian Hargreaves’s role in charge of the company’s communications. Kyran Hanks, Director of Economics and Regulation, will lead BAA’s regulatory work. Both will report directly to Stephen Nelson.

BAA says to work with Branson on fuel-saving | Business | Reuters.co.uk

BAA says to work with Branson on fuel-saving | Business | Reuters.co.uk: BAA says to work with Branson on fuel-saving
Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:02 PM BST
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LONDON (Reuters) - Airport operator BAA said on Thursday it had agreed to work with billionaire Richard Branson to explore ways for planes to cut fuel consumption at Gatwick.

Branson launched a proposal this week to change the way aircraft taxi onto the runway as part of a package of measures he said would help cut the world's aviation emissions, starting at Gatwick.

"Here at Gatwick we have agreed with Richard to work alongside his nominated team to explore practical ways of engaging and debating the issues," Paul Griffiths, Managing Director, BAA Gatwick, said in a statement.

However, it was unclear how far the airport owner would go in adopting Branson's proposal to set up "starting grids" at airports and have planes towed closer to the runway before takeoff.



Gatwick was the busiest single-runway airport in the world and any changes which slowed traffic would not be acceptable, one airline industry source said.

Branson's Virgin Group (VA.UL: Quote, Profile, Research) last week committed to spending all the profits from his airline and rail businesses to combat global warming. He is lobbying airlines and airports to consider his cross-industry proposal to slash emissions.

BAA, which was bought by Spain's Ferrovial (FER.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) this year, owns Gatwick as well as Heathrow and Stansted airports.

Latest news :: Alpha Airports Group Plc

Latest news :: Alpha Airports Group Plc: INTERIM RESULTS FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31 JULY 2006
28th September 2006

Alpha Airports Group Plc ("Alpha" or the "Group") is a leading aviation support services company, providing retailing and catering services to over 100 airlines and 83 airports in 15 countries around the world.

Financial Highlights

H1 2006/07 H1 2005/06 Change Full Year 2005/06
Revenue £278.9m £268.8m +3.8% £550.9m
Adjusted Profit before tax * £8.3m £6.2m +33.9% £18.5m
Profit before tax £4.2m £6.2m (32.3%) £18.4m
Basic earnings per share 1.32p 1.65p (20.0%) 5.74p
Proposed dividend per share 1.0p 1.0p 0% 3.2p
* Stated before exceptional items and including the post-tax results of associates and joint ventures.


Operational Highlights



Airline Services: sales up 3.1% to £151.4m; operating profit before exceptional items up 63.9% to £5.9m


UK operations benefit from continued growth of low cost carriers
New contract with British Airways to provide catering bond services at Gatwick
Australia operation back in profit



Airport Services: sales up 4.6% to £127.5m; operating profit before exceptional items up 8.3% to £3.9m


Higher spend per head at UK airports offsets fewer transactions
International revenues boosted by new retail openings in Italy and Romania



Strategic review ongoing


Emphasis on leveraging scale either with existing assets or through acquisition
Focus on innovation: pioneering new products and services



Ten-year £800m contract signed with Manchester Airport (see separate announcement)


Commenting on the results, Peter Williams, Chairman & Chief Executive, said:

"Against a difficult trading backdrop and the distraction of internal events, these are encouraging results.

"We operate in highly competitive markets and to succeed we must focus on improving our performance through a combination of innovation and building scale.

"The second half of the year remains a challenge but we are confident that the full year results will subject to the current security concerns, be in line with our expectations."

Enquiries: Alpha Airports Group Plc
Peter Williams, Chairman & Chief Executive
Tim Redburn, Finance Director 020 8580 3200
www.alpha-group.com
College Hill
Kate Pope/Mark Garraway 020 7457 2020


Chairman's Statement

Group Results

Overall revenue for the six months ended 31 July 2006 increased by 3.8% to £278.9m (2005/06: £268.8m) with small increases in all of the Group’s business and geographic segments.

As expected, the Group’s trading performance showed a significant improvement in the period with profit before tax and exceptional items increasing by 33.9% to £8.3m (2005/06: £6.2m).

Exceptional costs of £4.1m (2005/06: nil) in the first six months were mainly related to the events earlier this year, that led to the share suspension and subsequent investigation (£2.7m), and redundancies (£1.1m) that took place as part of a restructuring of Airport Services early in the period.

Net interest costs increased to £1.8m (2005/06: £1.3m) reflecting higher borrowings during the period as compared with the first six months of the previous financial year as a result of capital expenditure and additional payments to the Group’s pension scheme.

The UK tax charge in the first half has been reduced by £1.5m in respect of recoveries of overpaid tax in prior years. The tax charge in the second half of the financial year is expected to be similar to last year at around 27%.

Basic earnings per share, before exceptional items, were 2.98p (2005/06: 1.65p).

Net Debt and Cash Flow

Net debt at 31 July 2006 was £38.7m compared to £37.1m at 31 January 2006. During the period, capital expenditure amounted to £10.7m against depreciation of £6.2m. Major investment projects included completion of the Airport Services management information system.

Other significant cash movements included the pension payment (£3.8m) referred to below.

Dividend and Dividend Policy

The Board has approved an interim dividend of 1.0p (2005/06: 1.0p) to be paid on 30 November 2006 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 3 November 2006.

The Board has reviewed its future dividend policy. Whilst it is intended to retain flexibility regarding future events, the Board recognises the need to balance dividend payments with medium-term free cash flow generation and to maintain a level of dividend cover consistent with a progressive dividend policy. It is therefore the Board’s intention that the Group will maintain a dividend cover of not less than 2 times pre-exceptional earnings; this policy will apply from, and including, the year ending 31 January 2007.

Pensions

As previously reported, Alpha and the Trustees of the Alpha Airports Group Pension and Life Assurance Plan (the "Scheme") agreed that the final salary scheme would change to a career average scheme with effect from 6 April 2006. These changes have been made to help address the deficit on the Scheme. The Group also increased its ongoing contributions by 0.9% to 11.3% of pensionable salaries, made a payment of £3.8m and has agreed to make further payments of £3.0m per annum to fund the past service deficit. The cash cost in the current financial year will be approximately £6.0m.

During the period the Group recognised an actuarial gain on the Scheme of £4.0m before tax in the statement of recognised income and expense.

Alpha secures 10-year extension at Manchester Airport

Huge coup for Alpha as it secures 10-year extension at Manchester Airport – 28/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Dermot Davitt
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PHIL SHILSON'S DREAM TICKET
In December 2005, The Moodie Report reported on Manchester T2.
Picture Gallery
UK. Alpha Airports Group has signed a ten-year extension to its retail contract with Manchester Airport. The contract is expected to realise turnover in excess of £800 million over the ten years.

The contract extension, active from 1 April 2006, covers Alpha’s duty and tax free retail stores. Alpha will make a capital investment of around £8 million to drive further revenues and turnover at the airport. A significant proportion of the capital will be invested throughout the first two years of the contract which will include doubling the retail floor space at T1 to 22,000sq ft. The retailer said it would use “innovative design and retailing methods to grow spend per passenger passing through all the terminals”.

Peter Williams, Chairman and CEO of Alpha Airports Group, said: “This is one of the largest contracts in the UK airport sector and is a wonderful example of how a retailer and landlord can work together to create a step-change in the way services are delivered to consumers. Working together Alpha and Manchester Airport will set a new agenda for retailing at all airports.”

"Working together Alpha and Manchester Airport will set a new agenda for retailing at all airports."
Peter Williams, Chairman and CEO, Alpha Airports Group
Alpha first started working with Manchester at Terminal 1 in the 1970s and then opened stores in Terminals 2 and 3 in 2001 and 2002.

Williams added: “We are delighted to continue to work with Manchester Airport on plans to maximise retail flow and improve customer service. Travel retail has undergone significant change over the last ten years and we will be working together to provide a more sophisticated and targeted offering. There is a very small time window to engage with the travellers passing through the terminals, so we must have an experience in place which meets and exceeds their needs and expectations. Together with Manchester Airport, one of the fastest growing airports in the UK, we have the opportunity to create the blueprint for 'next generation' travel retail.”

The development work at Manchester includes the opening of a new store in T3 in April 2007 and the increase in the retailing area in T1, which is expected to be completed by April 2008. In addition to this expenditure Alpha will also be making further investment into the T2 store through the contract term, which it said would “ensure a premium brand offer for the ever sophisticated consumer”.

Geoff Muirhead CBE, CEO of Manchester Airport Group, said: “This is a significant and important contract for Manchester Airport as it will reinforce its position as the hub airport for the north of England. Over the next four years we will reinvent retail and catering across all three terminals and our relationship with Alpha is crucial to these plans. Like us, Alpha has a real passion for delivering the best possible retail solutions, which will benefit everyone using the airport.”

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: Huge coup for Alpha as it secures 10-year extension at Manchester Airport – 28/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Dermot Davitt
Email Print
PHIL SHILSON'S DREAM TICKET
In December 2005, The Moodie Report reported on Manchester T2.
Picture Gallery
UK. Alpha Airports Group has signed a ten-year extension to its retail contract with Manchester Airport. The contract is expected to realise turnover in excess of £800 million over the ten years.

The contract extension, active from 1 April 2006, covers Alpha’s duty and tax free retail stores. Alpha will make a capital investment of around £8 million to drive further revenues and turnover at the airport. A significant proportion of the capital will be invested throughout the first two years of the contract which will include doubling the retail floor space at T1 to 22,000sq ft. The retailer said it would use “innovative design and retailing methods to grow spend per passenger passing through all the terminals”.

Peter Williams, Chairman and CEO of Alpha Airports Group, said: “This is one of the largest contracts in the UK airport sector and is a wonderful example of how a retailer and landlord can work together to create a step-change in the way services are delivered to consumers. Working together Alpha and Manchester Airport will set a new agenda for retailing at all airports.”

"Working together Alpha and Manchester Airport will set a new agenda for retailing at all airports."
Peter Williams, Chairman and CEO, Alpha Airports Group
Alpha first started working with Manchester at Terminal 1 in the 1970s and then opened stores in Terminals 2 and 3 in 2001 and 2002.

Williams added: “We are delighted to continue to work with Manchester Airport on plans to maximise retail flow and improve customer service. Travel retail has undergone significant change over the last ten years and we will be working together to provide a more sophisticated and targeted offering. There is a very small time window to engage with the travellers passing through the terminals, so we must have an experience in place which meets and exceeds their needs and expectations. Together with Manchester Airport, one of the fastest growing airports in the UK, we have the opportunity to create the blueprint for 'next generation' travel retail.”

The development work at Manchester includes the opening of a new store in T3 in April 2007 and the increase in the retailing area in T1, which is expected to be completed by April 2008. In addition to this expenditure Alpha will also be making further investment into the T2 store through the contract term, which it said would “ensure a premium brand offer for the ever sophisticated consumer”.

Geoff Muirhead CBE, CEO of Manchester Airport Group, said: “This is a significant and important contract for Manchester Airport as it will reinforce its position as the hub airport for the north of England. Over the next four years we will reinvent retail and catering across all three terminals and our relationship with Alpha is crucial to these plans. Like us, Alpha has a real passion for delivering the best possible retail solutions, which will benefit everyone using the airport.”

Mediaedge:cia wins £5m Coca-Cola Enterprises work - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic

Mediaedge:cia wins £5m Coca-Cola Enterprises work - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic: "Mediaedge:cia wins £5m Coca-Cola Enterprises work
by Mark Banham Brand Republic 27 Sep 2006

Coca-Cola Enterprises: Mediaedge:cia wins accountLONDON - Mediaedge:cia has won the £5m Coca-Cola Enterprises UK media planning and buying account after a pitch against a number of agencies.
The account, which was resigned by Walker Media last month, includes promotional work for the Capri Sun and Appletiser brands, which are licensed to Coca-Cola Enterprises in the UK. Walker Media had held the account for five years.
The company is responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of Coca-Cola products in the UK, supplying around 240m cases every year, and is now preparing to launch new products into the market.
The main Coca-Cola media account in the UK is held by Aegis-owned Vizeum and is unaffected by the appointment of the WPP media shop. Vizeum handles the main Coca-Cola brands as well as the Nestea and Minute Maid brands.
Mediaedge:cia won the business after pitching against a number of unnamed agencies."

Categorynet.com :: Portail de la presse, journalisme & relations presse :: - Press release: Planning What's In-Store at World Duty Free

Categorynet.com :: Portail de la presse, journalisme & relations presse :: - Press release: Planning What's In-Store at World Duty Free: "WDF is the world's leading duty free retailer with a cutting-edge approach to airport retailing. With the beauty category contributing to just over 50% of the total revenue for the business and the other half of the company's revenue resulting from sales of liquor, food, tax free and luxury goods including sunglasses, watches and jewellery. World Duty Free operates 65 stores across BAA's seven UK airports, with 15,000 square metres of retail space offering over 12,500 products.

2005/6 Revenues

£407 million

Business Challenge

With the advent of the European Union, World Duty Free found that its original “duty free” business model required a transformation. World Duty Free needed to more profitably manage its business from head office to store shelf.

Business Solutions

* Portfolio Merchandise Management®,
* Advanced Planning by Arthur®,
* Portfolio Store Portal,
* Space Planning by Intactix®,
* Efficient Item Assortment by Intactix®

Business Benefits

* Increased sales through more profitable business management from head office to store shelf
* Refinement of the mix of outlet types and brands to match the demand and flow of travellers
* Improved planning processes through sales forecast modeling automation -to avoid over or under stocks
* More effective store operations, allowing the store staff instant Intranet access to stock availability and ordering capabilities
* Better control of available space on shelves, leading to the ordering of the right quantity of items
* Improved facings manageme"

Categorynet.com :: Portail de la presse, journalisme & relations presse :: - Press release: Planning What's In-Store at World Duty Free

Categorynet.com :: Portail de la presse, journalisme & relations presse :: - Press release: Planning What's In-Store at World Duty Free: WDF is the world's leading duty free retailer with a cutting-edge approach to airport retailing. With the beauty category contributing to just over 50% of the total revenue for the business and the other half of the company's revenue resulting from sales of liquor, food, tax free and luxury goods including sunglasses, watches and jewellery. World Duty Free operates 65 stores across BAA's seven UK airports, with 15,000 square metres of retail space offering over 12,500 products.

2005/6 Revenues

£407 million

Business Challenge

With the advent of the European Union, World Duty Free found that its original “duty free” business model required a transformation. World Duty Free needed to more profitably manage its business from head office to store shelf.

Business Solutions

* Portfolio Merchandise Management®,
* Advanced Planning by Arthur®,
* Portfolio Store Portal,
* Space Planning by Intactix®,
* Efficient Item Assortment by Intactix®

Business Benefits

* Increased sales through more profitable business management from head office to store shelf
* Refinement of the mix of outlet types and brands to match the demand and flow of travellers
* Improved planning processes through sales forecast modeling automation -to avoid over or under stocks
* More effective store operations, allowing the store staff instant Intranet access to stock availability and ordering capabilities
* Better control of available space on shelves, leading to the ordering of the right quantity of items
* Improved facings management and product ranges positioning to match each airport profile
* Easier identification of best-selling ranges and seasonal fluctuations to maximise profit




Return on Investment





Case Study: World Duty Free Increases Sales after Implementing JDA Portfolio

World Duty Free is the world’s number one retailer of duty free liquor and tobacco. Since 1997, the retailer has helped to redefine the concept of the duty free shop by setting new standards for the one-stop shopping experience with a focus on fragrance, skincare, cosmetics, champagne, spirits, tobacco and confectionery. But with the advent of the European Union, World Duty Free found that its original “duty free” business model required a transformation.

To lure Europeans travelling within EU boundaries where shopping duty free no longer provided a benefit, the company turned to an impulse-driven range of tax free luxury products including sunglasses, watches, jewellery, travel accessories and souvenirs. According to the retailer’s most recent Annual Report, the new model is paying off with revenues now in excess of £407M in 2005/6.

Enabling World Duty Free to more profitably manage its business from head office to store shelf is JDA Portfolio® solutions including Portfolio Merchandise Operations™ and Portfolio Planning and Forecasting™ applications.

Platform for a Single Version of the Truth

With its shops trading 365 days a year and many sites open 24 hours a day, accurate stock management is essential for World Duty Free. The retailer relies on Portfolio Merchandise Management® (PMM®) to address this requirement and cope with the varying product ranges demanded by a mixed clientele across a diversified enterprise. According to Jon Paton, World Duty Free’s Head of Merchandising and Supply Planning, PMM enables the retailer to refine the mix of outlet types and brands to match the demand and flow of travellers passing through each of the airport terminals where their stores are located.

“We replaced an outdated central merchandising system with PMM. PMM gives us a single version of the truth and full data integrity throughout our business,” stated Paton.


Targeting Merchandise to the Demand and Flow of Travellers

Also benefiting the retailer is Advanced Planning by Arthur®. Before implementing JDA’s best of breed solution, planning was largely a manual, labour-intensive process that required analysis of flight patterns and passenger movements. As a result, World Duty Free’s strategic planner was snowed under.

With JDA’s Arthur software, Paton describes a completely revamped and improved process. The planning process starts with a shop’s financial plan, based on the expected number of passengers, the demographic profile and projected spend. A weekly departmental sales forecast generated at store level is matched to this model, allowing a team of merchandisers to create forecasts of future demand and then create fixed stock plans to satisfy both supply and demand.

“We typically hold a maximum of eight weeks of stock throughout our supply chain, so it’s important to identify trends quickly and accurately to avoid over or under stocks,” continued Paton. “Arthur is able to automate much of the modelling to highlight potential problem areas and the entire system has helped to reduce out of stocks. The system also analyses the previous four weeks’ performance on a moving basis to create a weighted average and help smooth out anomalies and seasonal fluctuations.”



Store Staff Benefit from Internet Access to the Head Office

For more effective store operations, World Duty Free is utilising Portfolio Store Portal, Space Planning by Intactix® and most recently, Efficient Item Assortment by Intactix®.

“Store Portal has benefited us immensely by allowing our store staff instant access to PMM via the Intranet, so they too can see what stock is available, and if necessary, order more,” remarked Paton. “And with Space Planning and EIA, we are able to avoid ordering ten items when there’s only space for eight on the shelf.”

Paton provided additional benefits of the EIA implementation. “EIA provides us the ability to analyse sales data and create profiles for each airport so that we can more easily identify best-selling ranges, and advise on how to deal with seasonal fluctuations, like the need for more sunglasses and sun-cream in the summer. Space Planning also gives us valuable hints about changing the facings and positioning of ranges to maximise profit,” remarked Paton.

Coke Zero cannibalises regular and Diet variants - BR Bulletin - Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news by Email - Brand Republic

Coke Zero cannibalises regular and Diet variants - BR Bulletin - Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news by Email - Brand Republic: "Coke Zero cannibalises regular and Diet variants
by Nicola Clark Marketing 26 Sep 2006

Coke Zero: cannibalising other variantsLONDON - Coca-Cola has gained negligible incremental revenue from its £10m investment in Coke Zero's launch this summer.
According to ACNielsen, 62% of volume sales for Coke Zero for the 12 weeks to the end of September have been cannibalised from its flagship sister variants, with 32% of its sales taken from Diet Coke and 30% from regular Coke.
It is normal for some intra-brand switching by consumers following a major launch, but sources say the effect has been particularly heavy in this case.
Retailers said Coca-Cola had focused heavily on promotions to shift Zero, which hit sales of both regular and Diet Coke. The company refuted this, saying that although there had been some swapping between brands, it had been 'less than anticipated'.
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said year-on-year sales of Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero were up 'substantially', pointing to TNS data showing that 47% of Coke Zero sales were incremental and 9% taken from arch-rival Pepsi."

Low-cost carriers slam over-priced airports-26/09/2006-Dubai-Airline Business

Low-cost carriers slam over-priced airports-26/09/2006-Dubai-Airline Business: Low-cost carriers slam "over-priced" airports
By Jackie Thompson
Europe's low-cost carriers have launched a bitter series of attacks against high airport charges and costly new facilities.
Low-cost carriers attending the World Low Cost Airlines Congress and Routes network planning event in mid-September say airport charges are out of hand. "Airports need to lower costs and offer a better experience from a social perspective. At the moment it is a worse experience than ever," says easyJet chief executive Andrew Harrison.

Centralwings chief executive Maciej Kwiatkowski says that Warsaw airport is providing such an inefficient, costly and poorly staffed service he is considering switching his base to another Polish airport. "Warsaw is overpriced," he says. "We would move if the deal was good."

Harrison complained that several airports are "overbuilt and incentived to gold plate". He singles out Berlin's new airport and London Stansted as particularly bad offenders given their development plans. "Any change in the UK would be good change," he says.

"We must break up the airport monopoly," says flybe chief operating officer Mike Rutter, referring to the fact that BAA owns London Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted. "It undermines the competitiveness of the industry. Neighbouring airports must have different owners."

EasyJet airport development manager Nigel Fanning points out that although low-cost carriers account for 40% of the traffic at Stansted, the airport plans to spend £2.5 billion ($4.7 billion) to build new "facilities that are neither needed or wanted. All we want is a tin shed and access to our aircraft."

Berlin broke ground in September on a new €2 billion ($2.5 billion) airport which is slated to open in late 2011. "Such plans need huge investment - and this is a threat to the low-cost carriers," says Harrison.

Not surprisingly airports have a different view. "There will be no marble, no gold, just low fees," says Berlin Airports Group marketing director Burkhard Kieker. The new airport was planned in the mid-1990s, before the low-cost revolution took off, and plans will change to reflect that, he says. In addition, it is unreasonable for easyJet to expect the airport to commit to landing fees today for when the airport opens. "Airports and airlines will have to learn how to talk to each other. There's no choice."

Chris Orphanou, senior vice-president of operations at Vinci Airports, says, with some exceptions, that there is no longer any trust between airports and airlines and as a result the bond between the two has weakened. "It's not as strong as it used to be," he says.

Tim McDermott, airport development manager at Manchester Airport Group, says airports need to work with each market sector separately and that what is needed is a more sophisticated yield management model. "One size fits all from an airport perspective is not the way forward," he says. "We need to ask ourselves: What is the product we can build and the airlines will be prepared to pay for?"

Fanning says: "Airport groundhandling is the single biggest cost for easyJet, around 30% of operating costs, and so the need to pass on the pricing pressure felt by airlines is the major challenge confronting the low-cost market over the next five to 10 years."

"We need to get the message out there. Our industry is fighting for oxygen," warns Harrison. "It is being suffocated by airport inertia."

Construction and Maintenance :: BAA announces senior management changes

Construction and Maintenance :: BAA announces senior management changes: "BAA announces senior management changes

José Leo, Group Finance Director of Amey plc, the business services group, is to join BAA, the UK airports group, as Chief Financial Officer. He succeeds Margaret Ewing, who has decided to step down from BAA.

José Leo was appointed Group Finance Director of Amey plc in May 2003. Prior to that he was Managing Director of Ferrovial Telecomunicaciones. Before joining Ferrovial, he was Chief Financial Officer and Manager of Business Development at Agroman, the Spanish construction company which was acquired by Ferrovial.

BAA also announces that Ian Hargreaves, Corporate & Regulatory Affairs Director, has decided to leave the company.

Duncan Garrood, currently Divisional Director responsible for Gatwick and Stansted airports and for most of BAAs international activities, takes on a new role as Commercial Director.

Donal Dowds, also a Divisional Director, becomes Director of Operations, taking responsibility for Gatwick and Stansted airports, along with investment in information technology, surface access, planning and aviation policy.

Stephen Baxter, Managing Director of BAA Scotland, joins the Executive Committee, taking responsibility for all of BAAs activities in Scotland, along with Southampton airport and the BAA shared business service centre, which is based in Glasgow.

Duncan Bonfield, Director of Corporate Affairs, takes over Ian Hargreavess role in charge of the companys communications. Kyran Hanks, Director of Economics and Regulation, will lead BAAs regulatory work. Duncan and Kyran will report directly to Stephen Nelson."

Construction and Maintenance :: BAA announces senior management changes

Construction and Maintenance :: BAA announces senior management changes: "BAA announces senior management changes

José Leo, Group Finance Director of Amey plc, the business services group, is to join BAA, the UK airports group, as Chief Financial Officer. He succeeds Margaret Ewing, who has decided to step down from BAA.

José Leo was appointed Group Finance Director of Amey plc in May 2003. Prior to that he was Managing Director of Ferrovial Telecomunicaciones. Before joining Ferrovial, he was Chief Financial Officer and Manager of Business Development at Agroman, the Spanish construction company which was acquired by Ferrovial.

BAA also announces that Ian Hargreaves, Corporate & Regulatory Affairs Director, has decided to leave the company.

Duncan Garrood, currently Divisional Director responsible for Gatwick and Stansted airports and for most of BAAs international activities, takes on a new role as Commercial Director.

Donal Dowds, also a Divisional Director, becomes Director of Operations, taking responsibility for Gatwick and Stansted airports, along with investment in information technology, surface access, planning and aviation policy.

Stephen Baxter, Managing Director of BAA Scotland, joins the Executive Committee, taking responsibility for all of BAAs activities in Scotland, along with Southampton airport and the BAA shared business service centre, which is based in Glasgow.

Duncan Bonfield, Director of Corporate Affairs, takes over Ian Hargreavess role in charge of the companys communications. Kyran Hanks, Director of Economics and Regulation, will lead BAAs regulatory work. Duncan and Kyran will report directly to Stephen Nelson."

Independent Online Edition > Business News

Independent Online Edition > Business News: British Airways opens new front in attack on BAA's monopoly
By Michael Harrison, Business Editor
Published: 26 September 2006
British Airways called yesterday for a one-third cut in the profits that BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, is allowed to earn on its assets to deter the airport operator from gold-plating new projects.

BA's head of economic regulation, Andrew Cunningham, also said there might be a case for giving airline representatives direct powers to vet some of BAA's larger investment projects.

The airports group is planning to invest £9.5bn over the next 10 years, including £2.5bn on a second runway for Stansted - a project already attacked by the low-cost operator Ryanair as an over-priced "Taj Mahal".

Mr Cunningham said that monopoly airport operators such as BAA should not be allowed to make inefficient investments that drove up ticket prices. Speaking at a London conference on airport finance and investment, he said BAA's allowed rate of return should be cut from its present level of 7.75 per cent to 5.6 per cent when a new five-year airport charging formula comes into effect in 2008. The airline has made a similar proposal in its written submission to the Civil Aviation Authority, which sets charges at BAA's regulated airports.

BA, the biggest user of Heathrow and Gatwick, has already called for the break-up of BAA in separate evidence to the Office of Fair Trading investigation into the company's south-east airports monopoly. This latest broadside will increase the pressure on the company, which was recently taken over for £10.3bn by Ferrovial of Spain.

Mr Cunningham said the CAA should carry out an annual review of the amount BAA spends to ensure it matched the level agreed during the forthcoming charges review. He also said it might be appropriate for airlines to have seats on the project boards for some of BAA's bigger investment programmes so they could scrutinise and challenge the company's spending plans.

Under the current price-control formula, charges at Heathrow alone will rise by £250m or 50 per cent between 2003 and 2008. BA and a number of other big airlines including Virgin Atlantic and bmi fought a rearguard action to try to get the charges reduced but failed to persuade the CAA.

Mr Cunnigham said: "The current level of return is too high and does not encourage airports to invest efficiently in new infrastructure or build facilities that airlines want."

A BAA spokesman said BA's proposals to break up the company and then limit its return on investment would "kill" aviation in the South-east. "A rate of return of 5.6 per cent would severely curtail our investment and put at risk projects such as Terminal 5 and the new Heathrow East terminal," he said.

British Airways called yesterday for a one-third cut in the profits that BAA, the owner of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, is allowed to earn on its assets to deter the airport operator from gold-plating new projects.

BA's head of economic regulation, Andrew Cunningham, also said there might be a case for giving airline representatives direct powers to vet some of BAA's larger investment projects.

The airports group is planning to invest £9.5bn over the next 10 years, including £2.5bn on a second runway for Stansted - a project already attacked by the low-cost operator Ryanair as an over-priced "Taj Mahal".

Mr Cunningham said that monopoly airport operators such as BAA should not be allowed to make inefficient investments that drove up ticket prices. Speaking at a London conference on airport finance and investment, he said BAA's allowed rate of return should be cut from its present level of 7.75 per cent to 5.6 per cent when a new five-year airport charging formula comes into effect in 2008. The airline has made a similar proposal in its written submission to the Civil Aviation Authority, which sets charges at BAA's regulated airports.

BA, the biggest user of Heathrow and Gatwick, has already called for the break-up of BAA in separate evidence to the Office of Fair Trading investigation into the company's south-east airports monopoly. This latest broadside will increase the pressure on the company, which was recently taken over for £10.3bn by Ferrovial of Spain.
Mr Cunningham said the CAA should carry out an annual review of the amount BAA spends to ensure it matched the level agreed during the forthcoming charges review. He also said it might be appropriate for airlines to have seats on the project boards for some of BAA's bigger investment programmes so they could scrutinise and challenge the company's spending plans.

Under the current price-control formula, charges at Heathrow alone will rise by £250m or 50 per cent between 2003 and 2008. BA and a number of other big airlines including Virgin Atlantic and bmi fought a rearguard action to try to get the charges reduced but failed to persuade the CAA.

Mr Cunnigham said: "The current level of return is too high and does not encourage airports to invest efficiently in new infrastructure or build facilities that airlines want."

A BAA spokesman said BA's proposals to break up the company and then limit its return on investment would "kill" aviation in the South-east. "A rate of return of 5.6 per cent would severely curtail our investment and put at risk projects such as Terminal 5 and the new Heathrow East terminal," he said.

Raven Fox

Raven Fox: "Alpha plans new store at Liverpool

21 September 2006 11:54Print
By Tina Milton (tmilton@ravenfox.com) E-mail this article

Alpha Airport Shopping plans to open a new store at Liverpool John Lennon airport by the end of 2006

Alpha Airport Shopping is to install a new duty-free outlet at Liverpool John Lennon airport by the end of the year. The store, which will be about 2,000sq ft (185sq m) and situated at a secondary location near the gates, will stock a selection of products from the key duty-free categories including beauty items, toys and confectionery.
The store will complement Alpha's main outlet at Liverpool, where it will expand the space dedicated to beauty by about 250sq ft (23sq m). Beauty occupies 1,000sq ft (93sq m) of the overall store. Alpha head of luxury brands and beauty Jo Evans said: 'The new space will allow us to allocate more space to cosmetics and we can therefore move some of the brands off the walls to freestanding cosmetic pods. We also plan to introduce the Vera Wang brand.'"

Raven Fox

Raven Fox: "Alpha plans new store at Liverpool

21 September 2006 11:54Print
By Tina Milton (tmilton@ravenfox.com) E-mail this article

Alpha Airport Shopping plans to open a new store at Liverpool John Lennon airport by the end of 2006

Alpha Airport Shopping is to install a new duty-free outlet at Liverpool John Lennon airport by the end of the year. The store, which will be about 2,000sq ft (185sq m) and situated at a secondary location near the gates, will stock a selection of products from the key duty-free categories including beauty items, toys and confectionery.
The store will complement Alpha's main outlet at Liverpool, where it will expand the space dedicated to beauty by about 250sq ft (23sq m). Beauty occupies 1,000sq ft (93sq m) of the overall store. Alpha head of luxury brands and beauty Jo Evans said: 'The new space will allow us to allocate more space to cosmetics and we can therefore move some of the brands off the walls to freestanding cosmetic pods. We also plan to introduce the Vera Wang brand.'"

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: Alpha honours its super Heroes at Alpha Asia Heroes Awards 2006 – 18/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Soharni Tennekoon
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SRI LANKA. The Alpha Asia Heroes 2006 Awards was held on Saturday night at the Colombo Hilton Hotel in a glitzy Oscars-style ceremony.

The employee recognition programme – an extension of the parent company’s award-winning Alpha Heroes concept – was launched to all Alpha Orient Lanka staff in 2004. Finalists are judged on their commitment to the business, their roles and colleagues.


Left: Peter Williams and Paul Topping congratulating Priyantha Pushpakumara, the Overall Alpha Asia Hero 2006;
Right: Paul Topping watches as Masterfoods Travel Retail International Consultant Stuart Bull opens a winning invitation

Left: Team Pragathi celebrates winning the overall Airport Team Award; Right: Paul Topping and Peter Williams in Super Hero mode

Designed to reward and recognise outstanding employees, the scheme attracted 1,299 nominations across the 400-strong Alpha Orient Lanka work force, surpassing last year's 860 nominations. 18 awards, in both individual and team categories, were presented to 115 winners who received cash prizes of over US$50,000. The Moodie Report was among the award sponsors.

The big winner of the evening was Alpha Orient Lanka Marketing team executive Priyantha Pushpakumara, who won the overall Alpha Asia Heroes 2006 award.

Pushpakumara remarked: “I have worked 17 years for Alpha Orient Lanka and I still love my job. To me, my colleagues are all heroes as well.”

Among the invitees were 20 representatives from travel retail businesses around the world which support the scheme.


Overall Alpha Asia Heroes winner Priyantha Pushpakumara: “I have worked 17 years for Alpha Orient Lanka and I still love my job. To me, my colleagues are all heroes as well.”
Over 45 firms signed up to sponsor this year’s awards and many have shown keen interest in supporting this event again in the future. “A great evening," Pernod Ricard Travel Retail Europe Regional Sales Manager Tim Hallet commented. "We are proud to support Alpha Asia Heroes once again.”

Alpha UK had strong representation at the event, headed by Alpha Airports Group CEO Peter Williams, Group Commercial Director David King and International Buying Director Martin Petchey.

Alpha Asia Managing Director Paul Topping announced happily: “I am proud of my entire team. The deafening applause extended by winners and non-winners alike was touching and fulfilling.”

A daytime carnival event was also held in honour of the nominees. Participants competed in games such as the Diageo obstacle race, Cadbury's beanbag target throw and a Chivas basketball dunk.

Alpha Orient Lanka hopes to conduct this event annually, supporting parent company Alpha which aims to extend the scheme to all of its businesses around the world by the end of next year.

FULL LIST OF ALPHA ASIA SUPER HEROES

Overall Alpha Asia Hero Individual Award
Priyantha Pushpakumara

Store Assistant Individual Award
Nevil Perera
Highly commended:
P G Jayaratne

Executive Individual Award
Priyantha Pushpakumara
Highly commended:
Lakmal Wanigasekera

Sales Coordinator Individual Award
Gayanee Jayaratne
Highly commended:
Roshani Perera

Service Support Team Award
Logistics/Wharf

Head Office Manager Individual Award
Errol Moraes
Highly commended:
Sarath Liyanage

Service Support Assistant Individual Award
Waruni Jayamini
Highly commended:
Sheen Ambrose

Operations Assistant Individual Award
Janaka Vithanage
Highly commended:
Ruwan Dayaratne

Back of House Team Award
Colombo Bond

Customer Service Support Individual Award
W H Sumith
Highly commended:
Nilantha Fernando

Airport Manager Individual Award - sponsored by The Moodie Report
Somalatha Bandara
Highly commended:
W A D N A Pradeep

Labels Customer Service Assistant Individual Award
M N J Sadique
Highly commended:
Royston Dehoon

Front of House Team Award (Labels)
Labels Outlets

Supervisor/Storekeeper Individual Award
Shanila Bolhart
Highly commended:
Damien Fernando

Beauty Advisor/Customer Service Assistant (Perfume) Individual Award
Kanchana Sriyaratne
Highly commended:
H N Darshani

Airport Customer Service Assistant Individual Award
M K Imran
Highly commended:
Nalin Fernando

Kay Tuxford ‘Big Heart’ Award
Ruklanthi Fernando

Front of House Team Award (Airport)
Pragathi

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: Alpha draws line under recent turmoil with senior appointments - 15/09/06
Source: The Moodie Report
By Dermot Davitt
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UK. Alpha Airports Group today announced the appointments of Mark Adams as Finance Director and Andrew Magowan as Company Secretary and General Counsel.

Mark Adams (42) was previously Chief Financial Officer for STA Travel Group, the world's largest travel company focused on the student and youth market with sales of US$1.3 billion.

He was involved with all aspects of the strategic development and operational management of this business. He joined STA Travel in 2000 from Prism Rail, the UK's largest group dedicated to the operations of rail franchises, where he was Finance Director.

He previously held the roles of Finance Director, Field Group Plc (1997-1999), and Group Financial Controller and subsequently Finance Director of Burnfield Plc (1994-1997) where he played a leading role in the turnaround of the group before it was acquired by Fairey Group in 1996. Adams qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Spicer & Oppenheim before joining Bromsgrove Industries in 1989 as Group Accountant and then Group Financial Controller and Company Secretary.

Alpha said in a statement today: “[Adams] brings to Alpha Airports Group extensive experience in public company finance roles and is a welcome addition to the new management team.”

Adams will join the Main Board of Alpha Airports Group on 16 October 2006 and will work alongside the interim Finance Director, Timothy Redburn, for a period of time to ensure a smooth handover process.

Andrew Magowan (32) joins Alpha Airports Group on 20 November 2006 as Company Secretary and General Counsel. He has previously been a Senior Lawyer for Associated British Foods, which he joined in 2003. He ran the in-house legal team that was responsible for dealing with all legal matters relating to M&A, Commercial, Marketing, Litigation and Regulatory & Compliance activities within the company.

Peter Williams, Alpha Chief Executive and Chairman, commented: "We are delighted to welcome Mark and Andrew to Alpha. Both bring a wealth of financial, legal and commercial expertise and will add further depth to the new management team."

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: Website of the Week: Lufthansa WorldShop

Founded in 1926, Lufthansa is now Germany's largest airline and Europe's second-biggest. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's leading airline alliance.

Style

Lufthansa WorldShop features a sharp blue and white image interspersed with a variety of compatible colours and images. Welcoming in appearance, it is versatile, eye-catching and pleasing.

Products are well illustrated with good quality images. The layout, font and colouring are rich and contemporary and are complementary to the solid content of the site.

Content and usability

The home page indicates the ambition of the website with its smorgasbord of options competing for attention. If you already know what you want, the chances are that you will find it, thanks to good signposting and easy navigation. The wide range of options also helps. If you’re merely browsing, something is bound to catch your eye.

Kicking off with its dual menu – one product-related, the other miscellaneous – the home page offers a selection of promotions, special offers and a host of other attractive choices. Shops and outlets, catalogue request, extended search, My WorldShop, newsletter, view cart, contact and help make up the miscellaneous menu at the top of the page.

Shops and outlets gives an overview of WorldShop outlets in Neu-Isenburg and Bielefeld and at Berlin-Tegel, Hamburg, Munich airports and includes useful links, tips and information about each store.

Extended search is a more exhaustive version of the quick-search facility which is also found on the home page. It works on a keyword basis. Extended search enables you to be more precise with your quest, and even allows you to enter the amount you are willing to spend on an item (in Euros).

My WorldShop allows you to log in or register as a WorldShop customer. You may want to do a spot of online ‘window shopping’, but pre-order is available to registered users only.

The product menu is a comprehensive one with nine categories. Each consists of several sub-categories in a drop-down menu: Travel & luggage, lifestyle & accessories, Lufthansa & aviation, home & living, sports & wellness, kids & fun, entertainment & media, special sales and inflight shopping. The last category of online items dispels any confusion as to what is available in-store and and what is sold onboard.

Inflight shopping comprises Accessories and Exclusively by Lufthansa. The former includes watches, sunglasses, jewellery, leather, writing utensils, travel, for kids and electronic, neatly listed with thumbnail pictures and introduction. Items are displayed with an enlargeable thumbnail picture, description, ‘add to cart’ option and price in Euros. Items are also given their value in air miles, which is a useful system because a shopper can buy goods with either Euros, air miles or a combination of the two (details about this are found on the home page). For instance, a Festina Toronto Chronograph watch may be purchased for €169 or 40,000 air miles. Other watches brands include the likes of the Lacoste Damenuhr (€155 or 30,000 air miles) and the Adidas Professional Chrono (€139, 39,000 air miles).

Jewellery offers top brand names such as Hot Diamonds earrings for €69, 16,000 air miles, Thomas Sabo bracelet (€179, 40,000 air miles) and Montblanc Star Y-kette (53,000 air miles only).

Travel encompasses portable items and useful gadgets like the Swiss USB Deluxe Mouse (€28, 10,000 miles), World Travel Adapter (€39, 12,000 miles) and Steiner Skyhawk binoculars (€189, 45,000 miles).

Blood pressure meters (Bosomedilife PC – €99, 26,000miles), headphones (Sennheiser PXC 250 – €149, 39,000 miles), digital cameras (Minox Leica M3 – €210, 52,000 miles and EXILIM ZOOM EX-Z1000 – €429, 99,000miles) and mini USB business card scanner (Tarqus – €149, 34,000 miles) are all found under Electronics.

All menus stay rooted throughout so navigation is simple despite the comprehensive nature of the site.

Exclusively by Lufthansa offers a souvenir model aeroplane Herpa 'football nose' plane (€24, 9,000 miles).

Offer of the Month (September: Kenwood soft drink mixer) and WorldShop Top Sellers (6 items) are also found on the home page as well as a variety of competitions with a range of prizes to be won. A shopper can also browse the latest catalogue online and order products directly by submitting an order form. This is useful for shoppers who are familiar with the available items.

What we like:
Good product showcase and pre-order facility
Effective navigation
Pleasant overall image
Incentives to shop such as competitions, special offers and the ability to purchase items using air miles

What we think needs improving/adding:
A Sense of Place – maybe some destination merchandise needs to be introduced?

Visit Lufthansa WorldShop.

COMING SOON: The Moodie Report Travel Retail Worldwide Web Awards.

Sponsored by P&G Prestige Products

Which websites offer the best service to consumers? Which are most user-friendly? Which are the most stylish? And which, crucially, offer the greatest incentive to shop?

Every year we will judge, through a combination of industry polling, consumer opinion and specialist judges, who is doing most to wow travellers on the web. International and regional awards.

The main award – Travel Retail Website of the Year – will be unveiled at this year's 'Oscars' of the industry: the Frontier Awards in Cannes. More details coming soon.

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: "Nuance is confirmed as Sydney winner – 22/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report; The Moodie Report VIP News Alert
By Martin Moodie
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AUSTRALIA. Sydney Airport Corporation Limited (SACL) today announced that The Nuance Group has been awarded the rights to operate the airport’s duty free business, the largest in Australia. As previously reported, the retailer was named the preferred bidder on 20 July after one of the most intensely-fought duty free tenders of recent years.

Nuance headed tough competition, particularly from James Richardson in an alliance with Aelia, and DFS Group.

The Nuance Group has operated the concession at Sydney Airport as Downtown Duty Free since 1991. The current concession will end on 31 October, 2006 and the new concession commences 1 November, 2006. Subject to the exercising of options, the concession will last for eight years. "

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: "Nuance is confirmed as Sydney winner – 22/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report; The Moodie Report VIP News Alert
By Martin Moodie
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AUSTRALIA. Sydney Airport Corporation Limited (SACL) today announced that The Nuance Group has been awarded the rights to operate the airport’s duty free business, the largest in Australia. As previously reported, the retailer was named the preferred bidder on 20 July after one of the most intensely-fought duty free tenders of recent years.

Nuance headed tough competition, particularly from James Richardson in an alliance with Aelia, and DFS Group.

The Nuance Group has operated the concession at Sydney Airport as Downtown Duty Free since 1991. The current concession will end on 31 October, 2006 and the new concession commences 1 November, 2006. Subject to the exercising of options, the concession will last for eight years. "

Spanish lead City airport bid - Sunday Times - Times Online

Spanish lead City airport bid - Sunday Times - Times Online: Spanish lead City airport bid
Dominic O’Connell



THE Spanish may be about to tighten their grip on London’s airports. A consortium led by Sacyr Vallehermoso, a construction and infrastructure group, is tipped to be leading the bidding for London City airport, the Docklands hub loved by high-flying City bankers.
Earlier this year one of Sacyr Vallehermoso’s domestic rivals, the infrastructure group Ferrovial, led a consortium that bought BAA, the airports group that includes Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.



The Sacyr Vallehermoso team, which includes the insurance giant Axa and banking group HSBC, is understood to be one of two bidders still in the hunt this weekend after a short list of six bids was thinned out.

It was not clear last night what opposition the Spanish faced, but City sources thought a group involving Fraport, the owner of Frankfurt airport, might be the other survivor. A winner is expected to be announced within a fortnight.

What has raised eyebrows is the price. It is understood both the remaining groups have offered to pay more than £700m, nearly £200m more than the highest estimates when the airport was put up for sale in May.

Such a price would be an enormous coup for Dermot Desmond, the Irish financier. He bought the airport for £23.5m in 1995 from Mowlem, the construction group. At the time, it faced an uncertain future.

Airports have soared in value around the world as investors hungry for infrastructure assets have piled into auctions. But the price being talked of for City airport has stunned even veteran infrastructure investors.

“We might look back at this and say this was the high-water mark for these kinds of deal,” said one banker involved with a consortium that submitted a bid but was eliminated early on.

Desmond has appointed the Morgan Stanley investment bank to handle the sale. It declined to comment.

City airport was opened in 1987 as part of the government’s plans to develop derelict docks east of Canary Wharf. Although it struggled for passengers in its early years, it has taken off with the boom of building at Canary Wharf and in the rest of Docklands.

In recent years passenger numbers have been boosted by approval for a number of business jets to use the airport, and the construction of a dedicated terminal for private aircraft. Last year it handled 2m passengers, and recently unveiled plans to handle 8m by 2030.

WebWire | BAA launches dedicated education website

WebWire® | BAA launches dedicated education website: "BAA launches dedicated education website
BAA plc
9/18/2006 10:38:32 AM
WebWire Related Industries
• Airlines/Aviation
• Business Announcements
• Education
• Travel Industry
• Youth/Children
18 September 2006 - As the new school year gets underway, BAA has launched its education website, Take Off and Learn, to assist teachers particularly responsible for KS1 and KS4 pupils to learn more about airports. The site is also targeted for people interested in learning more about gaining vocational skills in order to work in an airport environment.
The website, which can be found at www.baa.com/education, provides information for parents and teachers including study plans and worksheets as well as information on BAA’s education programmes – including vocational skills and work experience.
Helen Murley, Director of Corporate Responsibility, BAA said: “BAA is committed to supporting the Government’s 14-19 year old education agenda through community programmes at all seven BAA airports in the UK. Our Take Off & Learn education website is just part of a programme designed to help young people develop key skills to support their personal development and future employability.”
Available on the site is a downloadable interactive multimedia program aimed at ICT GCSE pupils to help students find out about the use of ICT systems and databases in use at the airport.
For primary school children, an interactive program called Jumbo and Jet, has been developed. The program introduces children to the airport environment by illustrating the journey through airport through an animated storybook."

WebWire | BAA launches dedicated education website

WebWire® | BAA launches dedicated education website: "BAA launches dedicated education website
BAA plc
9/18/2006 10:38:32 AM
WebWire Related Industries
• Airlines/Aviation
• Business Announcements
• Education
• Travel Industry
• Youth/Children
18 September 2006 - As the new school year gets underway, BAA has launched its education website, Take Off and Learn, to assist teachers particularly responsible for KS1 and KS4 pupils to learn more about airports. The site is also targeted for people interested in learning more about gaining vocational skills in order to work in an airport environment.
The website, which can be found at www.baa.com/education, provides information for parents and teachers including study plans and worksheets as well as information on BAA’s education programmes – including vocational skills and work experience.
Helen Murley, Director of Corporate Responsibility, BAA said: “BAA is committed to supporting the Government’s 14-19 year old education agenda through community programmes at all seven BAA airports in the UK. Our Take Off & Learn education website is just part of a programme designed to help young people develop key skills to support their personal development and future employability.”
Available on the site is a downloadable interactive multimedia program aimed at ICT GCSE pupils to help students find out about the use of ICT systems and databases in use at the airport.
For primary school children, an interactive program called Jumbo and Jet, has been developed. The program introduces children to the airport environment by illustrating the journey through airport through an animated storybook."

WebWire® | BAA launches dedicated education website

WebWire® | BAA launches dedicated education website: BAA launches dedicated education website

BAA plc
9/18/2006 10:38:32 AM

18 September 2006 - As the new school year gets underway, BAA has launched its education website, Take Off and Learn, to assist teachers particularly responsible for KS1 and KS4 pupils to learn more about airports. The site is also targeted for people interested in learning more about gaining vocational skills in order to work in an airport environment.


The website, which can be found at www.baa.com/education, provides information for parents and teachers including study plans and worksheets as well as information on BAA’s education programmes – including vocational skills and work experience.


Helen Murley, Director of Corporate Responsibility, BAA said: “BAA is committed to supporting the Government’s 14-19 year old education agenda through community programmes at all seven BAA airports in the UK. Our Take Off & Learn education website is just part of a programme designed to help young people develop key skills to support their personal development and future employability.”


Available on the site is a downloadable interactive multimedia program aimed at ICT GCSE pupils to help students find out about the use of ICT systems and databases in use at the airport.


For primary school children, an interactive program called Jumbo and Jet, has been developed. The program introduces children to the airport environment by illustrating the journey through airport through an animated storybook.

Retailers demand rents cuts from BAA after airport chaos report

Retailers demand rents cuts from BAA after airport chaos report: Retailers demand rents cuts from BAA after airport chaos - report

LONDON (AFX) - Retailers operating in Britain's airports are demanding that BAA, the UK's airports operator recently acquired by Spanish construction firm Grupo Ferrovial SA, reduce their rent in response to the downturn in trade following last month's terrorist threat, according to the Financial Times.

At least three prominent retail chains with stores in BAA's seven airports across the UK revealed to the newspaper that they were planning to renegotiate rental terms, having warned the airport operator they were no longer willing to pay steep concession rates.

Retailers typically pay BAA a 10-20 pct cut of all airport sales, with a minimum guaranteed level of income. However, several chains told the FT they were aiming to reduce that cut in the coming weeks.

The security turmoil -- sparked by tough security measures in response to an alleged plot to blow up passenger jets -- has lost the airport operator 13 mln stg in revenues and added costs, the article said.

One airport source said it was still early days and pointed out that sales were beginning to recover to normal levels as the flow of traffic through the airports improved, according to the report.

Heathrow said 200-250 travellers were moving through security every hour, against 250-280 in the days before Aug 10.

About a quarter of BAA's 2.2 bln stg of revenues in the year to March came from shopping.

The retailers' demands come as BAA faces criticism from airlines, angry at the airport operator's handling of the situation in the days after the alleged plot was uncovered. British Airways PLC said the upheaval had cost it about 40 mln stg.

Raven Fox

Raven Fox: " new finance director and company secretary and general counsel will join Alpha Airports Group this autumn

Alpha Airports Group has appointed Mark Adams as finance director and Andrew Magowan as company secretary and general counsel. The move resolves some of the personnel concerns that have dogged Alpha since its shares were delisted in April. Adams replaces Tim Redburn, who took on the role of finance director for an interim period after Heather McRae resigned following the company's share suspension.
Adams was previously chief financial officer at STA Travel Group, which he joined in 2000 from rail franchise operator Prism Rail, where he was finance director. He will join Alpha's main board on October 16, working alongside Redburn for a handover period.
Magowan joins Alpha from Associated British Foods, where he held the position of senior lawyer. He will take up his post on November 20. Alpha CEO and chairman Peter Williams commented: 'We are delighted to welcome Mark and Andrew to Alpha. Both bring a wealth of financial, legal and commercial expertise, and will add further depth to the new management team.'
The company is still looking for a permanent replacement for group chairman Graham Frost, who stepped down in July."

Third BAA Black Sheep Departs - Forbes.com

Third BAA Black Sheep Departs - Forbes.com: Managing the finances of a quasi-governmental organization that deals with costly terror alerts is no easy task. Perhaps Margaret Ewing is pleased to be leaving her post as chief financial officer of BAA, Britain's main airport operator. Then again, considering that she reportedly fought tooth and nail to fend off a $18.9 billion hostile takeover bid by Grupo Ferrovial of Spain, her departure is perhaps more sorrowful than sweet.

Ewing is the third top executive at BAA to be replaced by its new owner. Jose Leo, the finance director of the Grupo Ferrovial business services subsidiary Amey, is set to take Ewing's place, though BAA has not been specific on dates. The company's chief executive, Stephen Nelson, said in a statement that Leo would "help us focus upon achieving higher performance." In July Nelson replaced the disgruntled former CEO of BAA, Mike Clasper.

BAA was bought by Ferrovial in a highly leveraged deal, meaning that Leo will now have to navigate through a Mount Everest of debt. Scuttlebutt has had it that the company will be broken up, most likely with a divestiture of its foreign airport ventures in Australia, Italy, and the United States to raise some cash. BAA says it does not want to let go of any of its British operations, which include London's Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted, even though an antitrust investigation by the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading could force asset disposals there.

The company's corporate and regulatory affairs director Ian Hargreaves is the other executive to be leaving the company. He, Ewing and Clasper were reportedly some of the most ardent fighters at BAA against the takeover by Ferrovial.

That's perhaps not surprising for Ewing, who had previously helped merge newspaper titans Trinity and Mirror Group, and had a hand in Vodafone (nyse: VOD - news - people )'s hostile takeover of Mannesman. In an interview last year, she said that in all of her career, the role of top bean counter for BAA had been her highlight. Still, with such a tough financial road ahead, it is hard to imagine that Jose Leo will share a similar sentiment.

YouTube named fastest growing online brand - Digital Bulletin - Digital news by Email - Brand Republic

YouTube named fastest growing online brand - Digital Bulletin - Digital news by Email - Brand Republic: YouTube named fastest growing online brand
by Joe Lepper Brand Republic 14 Sep 2006

YouTube: fastest growing site
LONDON - Social networking and video site YouTube is the runaway leader among the fastest growing online brands in the UK followed by Flickr and MySpace, according to latest research by Nielsen/NetRatings.

The results based on unique audience growth for the first six months of the year show that YouTube is the fastest growing website with a 478% increase in unique users.

In second place is photo sharing site Flickr with 131% growth, followed by MySpace with a 98% growth in third. British social network rival Bebo was placed in eighth place.

Despite the dominance of videosharing other sectors, particularly financial services and telecoms are also doing well. The fourth-fastest growing site is American Express with 97% growth and in seventh is Vodafone with 86% growth.

Alex Burmaster, Nielsen//NetRatings European internet analyst, said: "Last year indicated the potential for sites utilising the internet as a method for users to communicate and share information and the first half of 2006 has confirmed this.

"The audience to video sharing phenomenon YouTube is testament to this, having grown by a factor of almost five during the year, meaning that more than one in eight Britons online now visit this site."

Latest figures from Neilsen//NetRatings also show the top online brands in terms of female users, with ninth fastest growing online brand the cinema chain Odeon taking top spot, with 59% of its audience women.

In second place is Bebo, third is Vodafone and fourth MySpace while You Tube is eighth with a female audience of 36%.

Top 10 growth brands
1. YouTube 478%
2. Flickr 131%
3. MySpace 98%
4. American Express 97%
5. Photobucket 91%
6. Mozilla 91%
7. Vodafone 86%
8. Bebo 85%
9. Odeon 82%
10. B&Q 72%

FlyBe contacts shops for online activity - DMBulletin - Direct Marketing news by Email - Brand Republic

FlyBe contacts shops for online activity - DMBulletin - Direct Marketing news by Email - Brand Republic: "FlyBe contacts shops for online activity
By Claire Billings Campaign 14 Sep 2006

FlyBe: looking for below-the-line agencyLONDON - FlyBe, the low-cost airline, is looking for an agency to handle its below-the-line account.
The airline, which rebrand-ed from British European in 2002, has already contacted agencies. The shortlisted agencies will present their pitches next month.
The incumbent of three years, Clark McKay & Walpole, has been invited to pitch.
FlyBe wants agencies to come up with an online customer relationship marketing programme aimed at increasing online bookings.
Earlier this year, the budget airline backed the relaunch of its Economy Plus business service with a £1m ad push through its ad agency Souk, with media planning through Starcom. CMW developed an online campaign, which was sent to 800,000 Flybe customers.
Eighty-six per cent of the airline's reservations are made online, up from 6% in 2002.
Flybe is preparing for an IPO next summer. The company aims to raise up to £100m."

TheMoodieReport.com

TheMoodieReport.com: Alpha broadens sunglasses range across UK outlets – 13/09/06
Source: ©The Moodie Report
By Salina Christmas
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Expanding: Alpha is adding new brands to its range of sunglasses
UK. Alpha Airports Shopping has introduced five new brands to its range of sunglasses in response to growing customer demand.

Italian brand Missoni’s sunglasses collection, which features bold colours and retro styling, is now available at a number of stores across the UK, priced from £96 to £245.

Roberto Cavalli’s premium sunglasses range, priced between £122 and £225, has also been added along with his diffusion brand, Just Cavalli. The latter, at a slightly lower price point of £90 to £120, is aimed at a younger and more trend-conscious audience.

Miss Sixty’s fashion-driven range has been introduced in a number of locations across the UK, as has that of fashion house Diesel. With affordable prices ranging from £55 to £85, strong sales are expected.

Stores at Manchester Airport’s Terminal Two, Birmingham International Airport Terminal One and Newcastle Airport will be stocking the full range, where the category has been performing extremely well. A selection of the new brands will also be available at Manchester Terminal One, Birmingham Terminal Two, Liverpool John Lennon and Eurotunnel.

Joanna Evans, Head of Beauty & Luxury Brands at Alpha Airport Shopping, said: “Customers have become increasingly discerning when it comes to sunglasses and we are seeing a real demand for more fashion-focused, high end brands. Although the new lines have only been in stores for a matter of weeks, we are already seeing strong sales, with Diesel performing particularly well.

“People now tend to see sunglasses as an investment purchase rather than a short term fix and are prepared to pay more for a better quality of product. The new additions to our range will further strengthen our offer and improve our capacity to compete with the high street.”

BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Norwich Union cuts 100 city jobs

BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Norwich Union cuts 100 city jobs: Norwich Union cuts 100 city jobs

Aviva, owner of Norwich Union, has long-term off-shoring plans
A major restructuring by the owner of insurance company Norwich Union will see 100 jobs going in Belfast.
The UK's biggest insurer, Aviva, said it would cut 4,000 Norwich Union jobs by 2008 as it seeks to trim costs and streamline its operations.

Aviva said that about 50% of the cuts would come through compulsory redundancies.

It added that up to 1,000 jobs would be shifted to India, and another 500 IT posts would be outsourced.

John Ainley, group HR director for Norwich Union, said the staff in Belfast were excellent, but that customer buying patterns were changing.

"We now sell 50% of our motor policies online, over the internet, obviously as a result of that we need less people to take calls," he said.

He said that there were 236 people employed by the company in Belfast and that the 100 jobs affected were in customer service areas.

He said that a number of employees may have heard that the company was shedding jobs through the media after some information "got out" on Wednesday evening, earlier than the company planned.

'Self-service world'

Workers' union Amicus called the move disappointing and said its view on the cuts was one of "extreme anger".


David Fleming of Amicus said that the union had "a zero tolerance of off-shoring jobs leading to compulsory redundancies".

Aviva said the offshoring was part of earlier-announced plans to move 7,800 jobs overseas by the end of next year.

The company said it would look to "minimise the number of compulsory redundancies", but added that it needed to make difficult decisions if it wanted to safeguard future profitability and its industry position.

Aviva said that while it would be shutting some offices in cities such as Belfast, Glasgow, Stevenage, Norwich and Cambridge, it would not completely shut down operations in those locations.

Staff affected by the latest job cuts would be offered retraining and the chance to move within the company, a spokeswoman explained.

Patrick Snowball, the executive chairman of Norwich Union, said that changes in consumer habits meant that the company was operating in an "increasingly competitive and dynamic environment".

"Consumers, independent financial advisers and brokers are increasingly operating in a self-service world," he said.

BAA Passengers Below Forecast Due To Security

BAA Passengers Below Forecast Due To Security: British airport operator BAA said the number of passengers using its UK airports was 5 percent below the 15 million expected in August due to tighter security following a suspected plot to blow up airliners.

The Spanish-owned company added that it spent GBP13 million (USD$24 million) on extra security measures -- some of them one-offs -- after British police foiled the plan to blow up aircraft flying between Britain and the United States.

Tightened security forced flight cancellations and snarled Britain's busiest airports, prompting some carriers to consider seeking damages from BAA or the government.

BAA, bought by Ferrovial earlier this year, said UK passenger traffic rose by 0.3 percent to 14.3 million people over the month compared with 12 months earlier. Fewer than 2 percent of 116,000 flights were cancelled at its British airports, it said.

BAA, which runs London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports, delisted in London on August 15 after construction and services conglomerate Ferrovial successfully bid GBP10.1 billion (USD$19 billion) for the company.

Luton Airport to gain internet desks

Luton Airport to gain internet desks: "Passengers at London Luton Airport will soon be able to enjoy the benefits of advanced internet desks, after a deal was struck with Spectrum Interactive.
An internet retail shop, similar to those at BAA's Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, will allow customers to surf the internet, contact friends via MSN Messenger, compose documents on Microsoft Word and develop spreadsheets with the help of Microsoft Excel. With USB port functions, the internet retail shop will also allow passengers to save work that has to be submitted when they arrive at their destination.
Spectrum considers BAA to be one of its premier clients and the relationship between the two companies has brought about a number of key developments in the last few years.
Already Spectrum operates public internet services at 21 of the UK's airports, including Gatwick, Stanstead and Heathrow, with the latter gaining a bespoke design of ten internet desks and a helpdesk telephone area last week.
Daniel Gray, head of group marketing and product innovation for Spectrum Interactive, commented: 'We are extremely pleased to complete this agreement and to reinforce our position as market leader for public internet access at UK airports. In line with our product strategy, we are currently developing new features and services to offer through our desks, which will generate new revenues for Spectrum and its airport partners.'
The fourth-busiest airport in the London area, Luton welcomed more than nine million passengers in 2005."

Bloomberg.com: U.K.

Bloomberg.com: U.K.:BAA Says Terror Alert Slowed Growth, Cost 13 Million Pounds

By Richard Blackden

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- BAA Plc, the world's largest airport operator, said last month's terror alert slowed passenger growth and cost the company 13 million pounds ($24 million) in extra costs and lost sales.

The company's seven U.K. airports handled 14.3 million passengers in August, a 0.3 percent increase from a year earlier and 5 percent below the company's forecast for the month, BAA said in a statement.

BAA was criticized by airlines for its handling of the terror alert on Aug. 10, which prompted the government to introduce new security measures. The disruption cost British Airways Plc, the biggest user of Heathrow, 40 million pounds.

``The market most affected by the disruption was U.K. domestic,'' London-based BAA said in the statement.

Travellers using Heathrow fell 2.2 percent to 5.98 million last month. Gatwick, London's second-largest airport, handled 3.8 million passengers, a 2.1 percent increase from a year ago. Passengers at Stansted airport rose 4.9 percent to 2.36 million, BAA said.

Carriers, including Ryanair Holdings Plc, scrapped more than 2,400 flights at London's airports in the week after Aug. 10, when the government said the police had uncovered a plot to blow up planes traveling to the U.S.

The U.K. police have charged 17 people in connection with the alleged plot, of which 11 are accused of conspiring to murder and preparing acts of terrorism.

Though the government has eased some of the new security rules, carry-on bags remain restricted to half the previous size and half of all travelers are searched by hand.

Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, and EasyJet Plc, the second largest, have said that the cancellations cost them 4 million pounds each. Ryanair has filed a lawsuit against the government for compensation.

The disruption at the U.K. capital's airports comes less than three months after Grupo Ferrovial SA, Spain's second- largest construction company, agreed to buy BAA for 10.1 billion pounds.

Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR News - Brand Republic

Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR News - Brand Republic: "Coca-Cola plans special editions for Christ...
by Nicola Clark Marketing 12 Sep 2006 08:36
LONDON - Coca-Cola Enterprises is to launch a range of Christmas packaging, including seasonal gift-wrapping, to promote its Coke and Diet Coke brands.
The work reflects Coca-Cola's strategy of focusing not only on brand extensions but also packaging innovation to drive sales. A spokeswoman for Coca-Cola Enterprises confirmed that there will be 'new on-pack graphics and environment-specific point-of-sale activity across all channels', which will tie into Coke's iconic Christmas advertising campaign. The Christmas-themed designs will appear on two-litre bottles of Coke and Diet Coke, as well as fridge-packs, multi-packs, and six-packs of its iconic glass bottles. Earlier this year, the soft-drinks giant launched football-shaped bottles of Coke to coincide with the World Cup, while limited-edition aluminium bottles were rolled out to style bars. In May this year Coca-Cola launched a range of smaller bottles in response to concerns over healthy eating and drinking, and invested �1m..."

BBC NEWS | Business | BAA facing �20m terror alert bill

BBC NEWS | Business | BAA facing �20m terror alert bill: BAA facing £20m terror alert bill

Passengers suffered long delays after last month's alert
Last month's terror security alert cost airports operator BAA more than £20m, the company is set to announce.
Thousands of flights were cancelled at Heathrow and BAA's other UK airports after an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic flights was foiled.

Tight security measures introduced after details of the plot emerged caused chaotic scenes at many airports.

BA, which criticised BAA's handling of security at the time, has already said flight cancellations cost it £40m.

Compensation claim

On Tuesday BAA, which operates Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow and Edinburgh airport among others, will outline the cost of the alert to its business when it publishes details of passenger figures for August.

The £20m figure is more than double the loss BAA suffered as a result of last year's industrial dispute at catering firm Gate Gourmet, where disruption was limited to Heathrow.

Following the alert on 10 August, passengers were barred from taking any hand luggage onto planes, except for one small plastic bag.

Although the rules were subsequently relaxed, allowing people to carry one item of hand luggage the size of laptop computer on board, the security measures were fiercely criticised by airlines.

Ryanair is seeking £3.3m in compensation from the government, claiming the restrictions were excessive, unevenly applied and damaged its business.

Long-term concern

BA, which cancelled more than 1,250 flights between 10 and 17 August, has also said it is considering seeking compensation.

The £20m cost of the alert represents only a small fraction of BAA's annual sales of more than £2bn a year.

But the impact the alert will have on people's willingness to fly in the longer-term is harder to verify and remains a potential concern to BAA's owner, Spanish company Ferrovial.

The alert came at a boom time for British airports with a record 15 million passengers using BAA airports in July.

Mirror.co.uk - News - ANGER AT BAA JIBES

Mirror.co.uk - News - ANGER AT BAA JIBES: "ANGER AT BAA JIBES
AIRPORT chiefs sparked fury yesterday for poking fun at victims of last month's terror scare.
British Airports Authority's magazine has a photo of blankets for stranded passengers titled: 'New hotel opens at Heathrow.'
'Camping out!' is on weary people sitting on trolleys and cases.
Advertisement

The travel agents association said it was 'cringeworthy'. Graham Ashton, of Reading, hit by delays, called it 'an insult'.
Ben Morton, BAA communications chief, said: 'I deeply regret this and asked for immediate withdrawal of all copies.' "

Mirror.co.uk - News - ANGER AT BAA JIBES

Mirror.co.uk - News - ANGER AT BAA JIBES: "ANGER AT BAA JIBES
AIRPORT chiefs sparked fury yesterday for poking fun at victims of last month's terror scare.
British Airports Authority's magazine has a photo of blankets for stranded passengers titled: 'New hotel opens at Heathrow.'
'Camping out!' is on weary people sitting on trolleys and cases.
Advertisement

The travel agents association said it was 'cringeworthy'. Graham Ashton, of Reading, hit by delays, called it 'an insult'.
Ben Morton, BAA communications chief, said: 'I deeply regret this and asked for immediate withdrawal of all copies.' "

Mediaedge:cia promotes McLean to global clients role - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic

Mediaedge:cia promotes McLean to global clients role - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic: Mediaedge:cia promotes McLean to global clients role
by Alex Donohue Brand Republic 8 Sep 2006

McLean: ideal for the role
LONDON - Mediaedge:cia has promoted Andrew McLean to president of global clients and business development.

McLean moves up at the WPP Group media agency from his current position of chief client officer at its global solutions division.

He will be tasked with leading Mediaedge:cia's business development and new clients around its global network.

McLean, who has worked in Mediaedge:cia's New York office for seven years, joined from The Walt Disney Company, where he was European media director for its film and entertainment division Buena Vista.

He is also credited with launching DMB&B's Irish operations to serve Mars and Masterfoods in 1988, and his most high-profile campaigns were for the Irish national football team during the 1990 and 1994 World Cups in Italy and the USA.

McLean joined what was The Media Edge in 1999, before its merger with CIA, as client services director and was later promoted to global client services director.

Charles Courtier, chief executive officer at Mediaedge:cia Global, said: "Andrew is the ideal person to lead this effort -- his knowledge of our clients and his track record in building and growing business is outstanding."

McLean added: "Mediaedge:cia is a company that is fantastically equipped to enable our clients to gain a sustainable competitive advantage."

In August, the company recruited Jason Dormieux, Zed Media's board account director, to bolster its online, direct and search division MEC Interaction.

Mediaedge:cia promotes McLean to global clients role - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic

Mediaedge:cia promotes McLean to global clients role - Media Bulletin - Media news by Email - Brand Republic: Mediaedge:cia promotes McLean to global clients role
by Alex Donohue Brand Republic 8 Sep 2006

McLean: ideal for the role
LONDON - Mediaedge:cia has promoted Andrew McLean to president of global clients and business development.

McLean moves up at the WPP Group media agency from his current position of chief client officer at its global solutions division.

He will be tasked with leading Mediaedge:cia's business development and new clients around its global network.

McLean, who has worked in Mediaedge:cia's New York office for seven years, joined from The Walt Disney Company, where he was European media director for its film and entertainment division Buena Vista.

He is also credited with launching DMB&B's Irish operations to serve Mars and Masterfoods in 1988, and his most high-profile campaigns were for the Irish national football team during the 1990 and 1994 World Cups in Italy and the USA.

McLean joined what was The Media Edge in 1999, before its merger with CIA, as client services director and was later promoted to global client services director.

Charles Courtier, chief executive officer at Mediaedge:cia Global, said: "Andrew is the ideal person to lead this effort -- his knowledge of our clients and his track record in building and growing business is outstanding."

McLean added: "Mediaedge:cia is a company that is fantastically equipped to enable our clients to gain a sustainable competitive advantage."

In August, the company recruited Jason Dormieux, Zed Media's board account director, to bolster its online, direct and search division MEC Interaction.