The CEO of India’s Mumbai Travel Retail Pvt Ltd (MTRPL) expects to take to the worldwide stage now that it has a brand new company branding: Ospree. The transfer pulls collectively the corporate’s disparate duty-free operations at seven airports in India and can make it simpler to bid for contracts globally.

The rebrand integrates all of MTRPL’s airport duty-free companies led by Mumbai, the corporate’s flagship location with a growing reputation for whisky retailing; in addition to Ahmedabad; Amritsar; Jaipur; Lucknow; Mangalore; and Thiruvananthapuram.

The new identify, Ospree, can be simpler for potential concession companions to grasp when it comes to each storytelling and for MTRPL to outline its technique within the international duty-free procuring enviornment. The identify is derived from two phrases: the migratory osprey hen of prey that has tailored to residing in all continents (besides Antarctica); and spree, which describes an enormous procuring expedition.

MTRPL’s enlargement ambitions are backed by huge monetary muscle. The firm is owned, by means of three way partnership, by one in every of India’s largest listed conglomerates, infrastructure group Adani (with a majority share), managed by billionaire Gautam Adani; and Flemingo Travel Retail, a duty-free firm working in 137 areas in 26 nations by means of airport shops, diplomatic shops, and UN Commissary companies, amongst others.

In the just-published Forbes 2024 Billionaires List, Gautam Adani is ranked 17^th with $84 billion, second behind Mukesh Ambani amongst India’s now 200-strong billionaires.

Adani’s airport unit—Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL)—additionally turned the biggest airport operator in India in mid-2021 when it took a majority stake in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International. This has helped MTRPL’s enlargement within the Indian journey retail sector; other than Amritsar, the place operations began in January 2024, the remainder of the retailer’s airport areas are owned by AAHL and all seven will likely be rebranded Ospree sooner or later.

First European entry

The retailer has now gained its first concession outdoors India with a deal to run the duty-free enterprise at Eurotunnel’s French terminal in Coquelles close to Calais in France. Eurotunnel is the operator (till 2086) of the Channel Tunnel infrastructure by means of which LeShuttle freight and passenger companies (on vehicles and coaches) run between Folkestone within the U.Ok., and Calais. Eurotunnel was awarded its concession by the British and French governments on March 14, 1986.

Eurotunnel gave the contract to Le Marché Duty-Free, a subsidiary of MTRPL, in mid-March following an open tender course of that began in September 2023. The award was made earlier than Ospree was established so it’s unlikely the identify will likely be used when the enterprise is handed over from the incumbent Avolta on the finish of this month.

Avishek Bambi Das, CEO of MTRPL instructed me: “Avolta has been very helpful in every aspect of this handover and we are excited by the prospect of our first store in Europe.” It was, the truth is, the Eurotunnel tender course of that satisfied Das that MTRPL wanted a world consumer-facing model. “We realized that the Le Marché name is great for a French project but might not work in other geographies. We needed an overall rebranding which we started in January,” stated Das.

Deborah Merrens, Eurotunnel’s chief business officer, commented: “The reintroduction of duty-free services for passengers traveling to the U.K. has created a substantial opportunity to redesign engagement with passengers and drive sales.”

The retailer will cowl round 800 sq. meters of duty-free house inside the passenger terminal constructing, in addition to round 75 sq. meters within the freight terminal serving the duty-free wants of lorry drivers for the primary time. The concession doesn’t embody the terminal at Folkestone on the British aspect of the tunnel.

Other targets

So which different targets does MTRPL have in its sights? “There are bids coming up very soon but they are not yet officially announced. So it’s a little too early to talk about that. Essentially, any opportunity in an overseas location where we find the airport to be attractive we will be going for those bids,” stated Das.

MTRPL can be finalizing strategic partnerships so as to develop weightier bids for a few of these retail concessions. “These strategic partnerships will help us get into more geographies than we could if we were to do it alone,” Das added.

In India, the place the airport enterprise and privatizations are expanding fast, MTRPL is seeking to extract extra from present areas and transfer into sectors like seaports the place, by early May, the corporate may have six retail companies in place. They will all be at Adani-run ports the place the principle clients will largely be workers engaged on business freight liners.

MTRPL’s progress, in line with Das, has been a lot quicker than passenger progress up to now 12 months at near 50%. “That’s massive and it also means that our spend per passenger (SPP) has been the highest ever,” stated Das. This provides Ospree a strong platform from which to take flight.