Relishing the challenge
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After seven years as president/CEO of Interbaires, Enrique Urioste recently took up a new position at fast-rising retailer Duty Free Americas. David Davies spoke to him about his travel-retail past, present – and future
Distinguished former Interbaires president and CEO, astute commentator on all things travel-retail and, let’s not forget, a one-time Frontier Awards judge. Enrique Urioste is one of this industry’s most revered executives who, during his seven-year spell at Argentinean retailer Interbaires, not only steered the company through the worst economic crisis in the country’s history, but also oversaw its transformation into a business more creative, dynamic and, yes, profitable than ever before.
Last October, however, Urioste decided it was time for a change, and moved on to take up the position of president, airport division at Duty Free Americas (DFA). He spoke to Frontier about the many challenges ahead in his new role at DFA and the highlights of his extraordinary time at Interbaires.
I would start with the people – the quality of the people at Interbaires was great. Also, Interbaires was my first duty-free experience as a retailer. I would say that the greatest achievement from a professional point of view was that when the biggest-ever crisis in the country’s history – and therefore that of the company – happened, we were able not only to go through it, but also to take advantage of it to reposition the company at a level it wasn’t at before.
More specifically, we tightened links with all our suppliers; we committed to every single dollar and we paid back in time every single dollar we were owing; we upgraded the IT systems across the company; and we made major investments in bigger, mainly walk-through shops. Together with the reparation of the economy in
What, then, inspired you to make the break and join DFA?
As with most of the CEOs, I like challenges. Also, there are what we call professional cycles: the opportunity was there to join Duty Free Americas and the project they were offering to me was very big. The challenge of managing a company this size was really unique, and the challenges we would have to go through were really unique.
Why do you think DFA has become such a dynamic travel-retail player in recent years?
A combination of factors. I would start by noting that the owners of DFA, the Falic brothers, are extremely aggressive businessmen. From day one, they were very aggressive about where they wanted to position the company and where they wanted it to be. And they have done a fantastic job – they have really put the company on the map.
Does your appointment mean that the Falic brothers have now stepped back a bit?
No, they are still very much involved in the day-to-day running of the company. I am just another player in this great machine!
What is your focus going to be for the next year or so?
My key priority is to take on this new challenge that I believe travel-retail has to face, and this starts by bringing back to the duty-free shops what I call the ‘lighthouse of luxury’. We need to upscale our product mix, upscale our shops, and upscale the staff in the sense of giving them more and better training in order to be able to go to this new level.
We are going to be focusing not only on having the brands and shops, but also on the retail experience – beauty animations, sampling and so on. The whole philosophical approach is to create a unique travel-retail experience. In my opinion, that is where the future of this industry is going to be.
So presumably beauty is going to be a very important part of the offer…
Absolutely – it is clearly a key category. High-end accessories is another – we have to accept that we have a limited amount of space in our airports, so we need to focus on accessories that can bring a high ticket and strong presence. We are sub-dividing the category into high-end watches, high-end pens and high-end fashion. This means all the typical brands – Hermes, Christian Lacroix, Ferragamo – that would you expect to find on your travels, along with some others that are not so common in duty-free.
Can we expect to see more activity in support of tobacco?
Tobacco is special in this market – it’s a very important category – and we are doing, and will continue to do, our best to get the most from it. For example, in all the new shops you will see very strong branding and personalisation of the category, highlighting the strength of the brands and their availability. We will be emphasising that it is much more convenient for price and value reasons to buy tobacco with us than elsewhere.
Have you identified the first locations for this new ‘philosophical approach’?
By the end of March, we will have opened two new shops at concourses H and J in the new South Terminal at
We are also about to finish a new shop in Terminal 7 at JFK and are working on a new store at Boston Logan International – we are also going to be re-doing our main shop there. Later in the year, we will be opening two new shops in the North Terminal at
Is this new approach going to be a long-term project?
No, we have to achieve it in the short-term – we do not have the luxury of time! We really hope to be able to show this year in a very clear and precise way the new upscale shops that we are going to be offering.
It certainly sounds like a challenging job! But are you enjoying it?
Absolutely. It is a unique sensation to get out of bed each day and have a huge challenge on your shoulders. Although it is very different from the challenge that I faced at Interbaires, it does inspire a lot of adrenaline and passion… I would define myself as super-passionate about things – it’s just the way I am. Whatever I do, I am committed to it in such a way that it is like I am playing at the World Cup!
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