Page 54 - IAADFS Summit 2023 Special Edition

INSIDER

London Supply’s flagship Duty Free Shop in
Puerto Iguazú, located in Argentina on the
border with Brazil, hosted the launch of the
upscale Parfums de Marly, in March.

“The Caribbean market has recovered
very well. Tourism in 2022 was close to
90% of what it was in 2019. And 2023
will be +10 or more. Tourism is back. That
is good for us. It is good for the retailers.
And the cruises are booming—and they
bring more people. And we distribute to the
cruises, so we are happy,” he added.
Guillaume Bona sees the cruise sector
as an excellent opportunity for Caribbean
growth because cruise ships brought some
30 million tourists to the islands pre-
pandemic.
“Remember, one booking brings a
passenger to several island ports, giving
them several chances to buy,” he stressed.
Recovery underway Latin America were already trending 2019, In fact, Guillaume Bona cited figures
Essence Corp. is seeing some nice so there was already recovery happening in showing that current perfume sales onboard
recovery in the Americas now and is 2022 and expectations are much better this the cruise ships in the Caribbean are above
optimistic that this recovery will continue. year,” commented Antoine Bona. 2019 levels.
“Perfume has just exploded. In the “People can travel, and Latin America He also points out that sales in the
U.S., sales are up 20%. They are way ahead is recovering faster than most other Caribbean are not restricted only to tourists.
of 2019,” noted Jean Jacques Bona. markets. Another plus, Miami was the “The share of the sales between the
“Figures we saw last November from busiest international airport in the U.S. last tourist and local customer is more or
year,” he said. less 50-50, depending on the brand and
Furthermore, the lack of Asian the retailer, especially in islands like St.
passengers did not significantly impact Croix,” he noted.
Essence Corp.’s business, which is With reports showing full hotels and
primarily fragrance brands in North strong forward bookings, the company
America and South America, as opposed to expects this market to remain strong.
skincare brands.
“The airports that generate the most Surviving the pandemic
business for Essence Corp. are Miami, The Essence Corp. team instituted
Orlando, Dallas, Houston, JFK, Atlanta, quite a number of new practices and
and Toronto – and even there we sell more updated systems to better manage the
to passengers from the Americas than we business during the pandemic.
do to the Asian passengers,” confirmed “We’ve had some very good best
Antoine Bona. practices put into place. I think that our
inventory management is way better than
Huge market share in the Caribbean it has ever been because we analyze on a
Essence Corp. has a major market daily basis and categorize each sku, we
presence throughout the Caribbean. don’t allow ourselves to accumulate bad
“We have close to 50% market share inventory,” commented Antoine Bona.
in the Caribbean, between 45-50%. We Speaking from a marketing
work with all the independent perfumeries viewpoint, Gabi Medeiros Humbles
Essence Corp’s Jean-Jacques Bona addresses and with retailers that have stores across added: “We naturally had to transition
the team as the company kicks off its 35th year multiple islands,” says Guillaume Bona, our communication into Teams and Zoom
in business. Vice President of Sales for the Caribbean. meetings, which helped everyone work

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