Avolta’s Vijay Talwar redefines innovation with visionary airport partnerships

Centering its strategy on building connected retail ecosystems that enhance customer engagement while supporting airport partners and brand stakeholders, travel retail giant Avolta is evolving its business through a sharper focus on innovation, digitalization and collaboration. Chief Commercial Officer Vijay Talwar says this mindset is shaping everything from store design to loyalty programs and operational culture.

Commenting on how the company’s design philosophy is driving fresh thinking, Talwar says, “If you think about the airports in Stockholm, Belgrade and Bangalore in addition to the duty free upgrades we did in Spain – Barcelona is probably the best example – it was all done through the lens of design. Design is a very important part of who we are and what we do.”

This approach has taken form in Avolta’s experiential concepts such as Presentedby, which marries innovation with sustainability. “We built a completely sustainable store,” Talwar explains. “We 3D printed it from post-industrial PET-G (PIPG), an innovative material composed of recycled plastic.”

The concept extends beyond design to include pioneering ideas like 3D-printed plant-based food introduced at Cannes last year. “Those are the kind of concepts; it’s about design, it’s about innovation,” he says.

Meaningful innovation

Avolta’s approach to innovation extends beyond financial metrics. “Not everything will have the same level of commercial success,” Talwar says. “Innovation is about the reaction you’re getting from customers in terms of ‘wow.’”

The challenge, he says, is taking promising ideas and backing them with the support needed to reach meaningful scale. Across our footprint we see retail and digital concepts that delight travelers and align with our brand and airport partners. “Our job is to learn fast from what works, distill it into a repeatable playbook, and roll it out across many airports within a year or two, while keeping it locally relevant,” Talwar says. “That is how you move the needle on innovation and on how travelers perceive Avolta.”

To address this, Avolta is now approaching innovation through two lanes. “One lane is doing something new and different, like Presentedby,” Talwar explains. “And another lane is getting this into 50 to 80% of our stores within a year or two, because that moves the needle from a consumer perception standpoint. It’s one thing to read about something on social media; it’s another to experience it yourself.”

The power of partnerships

In Abu Dhabi, Avolta worked with Presentedby to launch the concept’s first travel retail store, an experience-led space that brings together luxury, design and local identity. “We’re very thankful to the Abu Dhabi Airport for the partnership because they saw the value in creating something different,” Talwar says.

This commitment to collaboration also extends to Avolta’s latest loyalty initiative. Building on its global Club Avolta program, the company has formed a partnership with King Power to connect their respective loyalty ecosystems. The integration allows travelers to earn and redeem points seamlessly across both groups’ retail networks, spanning airports, downtown stores, motorways and cruises, creating the most comprehensive loyalty platform in travel retail. Early results point to strong engagement from travelers eager for a more unified experience, reflecting Avolta’s broader push toward connectivity across every touchpoint.

Middle East and India

Talwar sees the Middle East and India as pivotal growth engines. “The Indian consumer is doing significantly better for Diageo, Lindt and for many other brands,” he says. “We’re now focusing on them not just in India, but also in the Middle East, where an exceptional number of travelers are Indian.”

He points out that much of the future growth in global travel will come from first-time flyers. “Remember that 80 to 85% of people have never stepped on a plane,” he says. “As more of these future customers begin to travel, the passenger base will only get younger. We need to adapt to the younger generation, not just the people who have been buying the same thing over and over.”

People over tech

Technology continues to underpin Avolta’s transformation. Talwar describes digitalization as central to creating a seamless experience for travelers, whether through self-checkout, data-driven personalization or smarter retail operations. But he’s quick to note that technology is a means, not an end.

Talwar insists Avolta’s real strength lies with its people. “Nothing we accomplished in the first year of Club Avolta, nothing in the announcement we made with King Power, none of that would be possible without the 70,000 team members,” he says. “Technology is supportive, but at the end of the day, everything we work on depends on our people.”

Digitizing the workforce, he adds, is one of Avolta’s biggest internal initiatives. “That then unlocks everything else we’ve talked about,” he says. “We are a people business, and we’ll always be a people business. Our biggest asset is every team member who clocks in when the airport opens and clocks out when it closes.”

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