Page 27 - TFWA World Exhibit 2024 Special Edition

INSIDER

Heinemann Americas debuted eight shops
onboard Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas
earlier this year.
The new Utopia of the Seas features eight retail
stores designed and operated by Heinemann
Americas, including The Shop (below), offering
Royal Caribbean branded merchandise; The
Collection, showcasing fashion watches,
sunglasses, jewelry and leather goods; and
Kids Shop, offering toys, candy and branded
merchandise.
The ship debuted in Port Canaveral, Florida in
July and offers three-night weekend and four-
night weekday getaways.

reliable warehousing partner. Because of
that, we switched our third party logistics
provider three years ago, signing with
French company Bolleré in Miami, who for
example was able to provide a big, flexible
climate-controlled area in a free trade
zone.”
This climate control is very important,
especially when you deal with perfume,
cosmetics, liquor, wine and tobacco, he
explained.
“The group has since been acquired
and is part of CEVA, a huge global player.
The name is different but it is the same
company and continues to give us the
two things we rely on: consistency and
efficiency. They also offer us flexibility,
and can accommodate our potential for
in 2019, as major milestones. Heinemann concise, more efficient, but definitely growth,” says Hoeborn.
is no longer working with Carnival as a stronger team. We have an average
retailer, but that contract propelled the tenure within our team of more than three Diversification and data
company into the retail sector in the U.S., years, which, given we are only 10 years Talking about Heinemann’s greatest
he says. old, I think is a pretty strong number. point of difference from its competitors,
“Our entrance into the F&B business Our retention rate is above 80%. The Hoeborn points to the company’s unique
is the next big milestone for Heinemann. development is really encouraging, and we retailer/distributor structure.
It’s key for us in terms of our strategy,” he can say that we are cruise specialists now “This diversification gives us stability
stresses. in Miami. And that’s why we came here.” globally, so we do not need to rely on
The COVID-19 pandemic of course only one leg: we do distribution and we
put a terrible strain on the cruise business, Logistics do retail. This is why Heinemann is such
but Hoeborn says that the time off gave The key to serving the cruise industry a stable company. It is critical for us here
the company some time to assess all their is effective logistics, says Hoeborn. in America to have both legs and that
processes and reevaluate their structure. “For Gebr. Heinemann, logistics is stability as well. First of all, stability is an
“We took the time to figure out the backbone of everything, and we pride advantage for our customers and for our
how we could be more efficient and set ourselves on being the best in logistics on own retail business; but it also enables us to
ourselves up for success. So after the a global scale. In the Americas, as well, it have a massive data set as well.
pandemic, we ended up with a more was critical to have a strong and absolutely “Through our extensive global cruise

27 October 2024