Lagardère Travel Retail strengthens global Commercial organization to accelerate growth and efficiency

Lagardère Travel Retail announced the strategic reorganization of its Commercial team during the company's annual Duty Free Partner e-Forum, its online event bringing together brand partners from around the world.

This new structure is designed to reinforce the company’s organization to better address its growing scope of activities, empower local markets, and strengthen central expertise to drive performance and growth across all geographies.

Lylian Vignau, Chief Commercial & Digital Officer of Lagardère Travel Retail, said, "Our ambition is to combine the strength of local insights with global expertise. We want our teams on the ground to act quickly and adapt to each market, while our central structure drives strategic initiatives, shares best practices, and leverages synergies between our three business lines [duty free & fashion, travel essentials and dining]. This balance between local responsiveness and global coordination is essential to deliver exceptional value to our partners and create innovative offers for our customers. We are also developing regional capabilities wherever they can bring value to our activities."

At the core of this reorganization lies a strategic goal focused on growth and innovation. By empowering teams to anticipate market trends and tailor offers to local demand, Lagardère Travel Retail can strengthen commercial decision-making and drive innovation in products and services. The new structure also enhances the company’s flexibility to serve as a hub for new ideas and lower barriers to entry for potential new brands while taking advantage of our scale and global reach to spread expertise or innovation.

Key structural changes include the appointment of Alexandre Pardo as VP Global Supply Chain, overseeing logistics, demand planning, forecasting, and procurement. A new Asia Pacific regional office will be established in Singapore under Annabelle Chung Chai Man, responsible for regional negotiations and offer adaptation, while Munif Mohammed continues to lead the Middle East office in Dubai.

The Central Core Merchant Division has been restructured into three complementary departments:

• The Merchant Core Duty Free, under Guillaume Robert’s leadership, will be managing centrally coordinated Duty Free Core categories such as Perfumes & Cosmetics, Beverages & Confectionery

• The Merchant Support, led by Stéphane Cathelain, will focus on delivering the tools, data, and methods to enable cross-functional commercial excellence as well as managing transversal categories such as Tobacco, Electronics of Toys and reinforcing our international negotiations and strategic partnerships. Stéphane Cathelain is also of Deputy CEO of Extime Duty Free Paris.

• The Commercial Coordination department, led by Fabio Castiglioni, supporting country operations, international openings and refits, and coordinating the commercial aspects of new projects.

The organization is designed to advance several of Lagardère Travel Retail’s key ambitions: delivering excellence from strategy to customer satisfaction; achieving a 25% absolute reduction in Scope 3 carbon emissions by 2030, and sustaining like-for-like growth in sales per passenger above inflation year-on-year.

"This new organization is about being smarter, faster, and more connected,” Vignau added. "It positions us to seize growth opportunities, support our teams, and deliver value to our partners and customers worldwide."