Lagardère Travel Retail Peru celebrates its first year in business with the opening of ‘Fantastico Peru’: a new store to bring a true sense of place to Lima airport.
To mark the first anniversary of its operations at Lima international airport, Lagardère Travel Retail Peru is unveiling a brand new concept, ‘Fantastico Peru’, in a revamped space of 250m² at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima. Entirely designed around local authenticity, the new concept offers travelers an immersive experience into what the Peruvian culture has best to offer.
In January 2022, Lagardère Travel Retail officially took over the operations of Duty Free stores at Lima airport. In less than a year, the team has brought significant developments into the stores including a new payment area aligned to the Aelia Duty Free concept, a space dedicated to chocolate with a treats tree inspired by the iconic Peruvian Yuza tree, and a vast modern sense of place development to reflect the uniqueness of the Peruvian culture.
As part of this greater emphasis on Sense of Place, Lagardère Travel Retail and Lima Airport Partners have partnered to revamp a local space of 250m² into a brand new concept named ‘Fantastico Peru’. Initiated a few months ago in parallel of the opening of the Duty Free new operations, the store has been developed from an extensive work to understand the Peruvian rich history, culture, architecture and best embody it into a retail concept. Teams have also considered the range of products and space in order to strike a perfect balance between modernity and cultural enhancement. Most of the shop’s fixtures have been reused from the previous space, to promote circularity.
‘Fantastico Peru’ offers an immersive experience to discover local brands and producers. The selection of products includes beverages, gourmet foods, souvenirs, textiles and cosmetics. Among many other choices, travelers can access a large assortment of Pisco, the shining star in Peru (including the exclusive pisco ‘Parras Centenarias’ by Demonio de Tacama), but also gin, vodka, beers, and the recently awarded “Black Whiskey” from Don Michael Andean Distillery. To enhance travelers’ feeling to be immersed into the Peruvian culture, new animations have been developed for the store including a distillery bar, stands to showcase local artists and products. A new space has also been dedicated to chocolate to give tablets and pralines better exposure and enable customers to compose an assortment of their favourites “chocotejas”, a truffled chocolate typical from Peru, in a pick & mix space.
The vast assortment of local products on offer has been made possible through the important network of local Peruvian producers and craftsmen developed over the last months by the Lagardère Travel Retail team.
Finally, ‘Fantastico Peru’ features a space dedicated to healthy foods, where travelers can find 100% locally-sourced gluten and sugar-free products as well as superfoods. This innovative space, which breaks the code of the traditional Duty Free offering, has been developed to promote the fact that anyone can access better health and living even on a journey.
Commenting on this announcement, Cyril Letocart, CEO of Lagardère Travel Retail in Peru, said: “We are very proud to be unveiling this new concept which brings together the best of what the Peruvian culture, gastronomy and artisans have to offer. It is a new step towards creating different Duty Free experiences for travelers, focused on local authenticity. To materialize this ambition we have worked hand in hand with our partners at Lima Airport Partners who share the same vision and values. And we must all recognize this has been quite an achievement given the sizeable challenges we have faced along the way, from juggling with multiple technical and suppliers’ constraints in a still feverish logistic environment to managing the continued impact of the sanitary crisis”.
Also commenting on the announcement, Norbert Onkelbach, Chief Commercial Officer of Lima Airport Partners, said: "We are very pleased to celebrate the anniversary of our commercial partnership with Lagardère Travel Retail, with whom we have built a relationship based on trust and collaborative work during the pandemic recovery. Together, we have designed a commercial offer focused on some common values: Improving passenger experience, revaluing Peruvian culture, and promoting a sustainable business through employing from the local neighbours of Callao and providing opportunities for local suppliers”.
This local concept is aligned to Lagardère Travel Retail’s CSR pledge to support local producers and economies and champion the “Peru” brand. The official inauguration of ‘Fantastico Peru’, which took place yesterday, was attended by representatives from the French and German embassies, by delegates from the German and Lima Chambers of Commerce as well as by local journalists.