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Cartier’s new boutique at Istanbul Airport.
The largest Cartier boutique to grace the world journey retail channel has opened at Istanbul Airport just as tourism is rebounding across Europe—and as Turkey woos Russians to getaway there. The French brand’s beautiful room, all 1,400 square toes of it, also has a 40-foot gold facade on an outward-dealing with corner posture, producing it obvious from a length.
Cartier has partnered with the joint venture of Gebr. Heinemann, Unifree Obligation Cost-free and ATÜ Duty Free, to open the boutique, which sits in the airport’s luxury watches and jewelry zone. It is flanked by Omega on 1 side and area jeweler Atasay, on the other.
The arrival of a Cartier retailer of this dimension is rather a coup for Istanbul Airport. The Turkish hub presently has a swathe of leading-finish branded boutiques such as Bottega Veneta, Bulgari Celine, Christian Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Saint Laurent in an space dubbed ‘luxury hill’.
Cartier adds more cachet. ATÜ Duty No cost CEO Ersan Arcan commented: “We regard the existence of Cartier at Istanbul Airport—one of the 1st names that arrives to thoughts amid elite worldwide brands—as an critical advancement for (our) boutique retailing.”
Jan Richter, Heinemann’s director of purchasing for trend, components watches and jewelry, extra: “Cartier is just one of the major 3 luxurious makes in the globe. It stands for famous watches and jewellery that are passed down from technology to era.” Legendary items incorporate its Tank and Santos watches the Trinity Ring created by Louis Cartier in 1924 and the Juste Un Clou bracelet discovered in 1971 in New York. An ‘Icon Bar’ in the centre of the new retailer showcases some of the most well-known goods.
Cartier’s basic Juste Un Clou bracelets and ring.
For today’s luxurious shoppers at the airport, the merchandise mix also includes new and modern day strains these kinds of as Clash De Cartier and modern day interpretations of classics like Santos, in order to bring in a young demographic. The entrance region highlights parts from the current assortment, as effectively as leather products, perfumes and sunglasses.
Turkey invites Russians in
So why pick Istanbul for its major airport shop, and why now? The unit was, in reality, prepared a though in the past but postponed simply because of the pandemic. Deal negotiations with Cartier have been eventually finalized in 2021. The manufacturer has been actively constructing its presence in Turkey according to Cartier’s Turkey & Levant managing director Nicolas Martin, even though the airport boutique guarantees visibility well beyond the region.
Fortuitously, from a gross sales viewpoint, Cartier will also reward from Turkey’s conclusion to ignore NATO sanctions ensuing from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, by encouraging Russians to journey to Turkey immediate. Turkish Airways additional a lot more than 300 flights to Russia prior to the summer season according to the i newspaper.
Grand entrance: A visually desirable, present day store from Cartier.
Tourists will probable be rich, and eager responsibility-no cost purchasers. Nonetheless, presented how remarkably stable the Russian economic system has been considering that the war in opposition to Ukraine broke out in February, inspite of sanctions—and with the ruble soaring all over again against most currencies which include the Turkish lira—middle course Russians may well also be checking out the Cartier boutique at Istanbul Airport.
It is ironic that Cartier could advantage in this way. The brand’s proprietor, Switzerland-dependent luxurious conglomerate Richemont—chaired by South African billionaire Johann Rupert—along with Gucci owner Kering, pulled out of the Responsible Jewelry Council in March simply because of its continuing ties to Russia at the time.
In Richemont’s fiscal 12 months 21/22 ending March, the company’s selection to suspend industrial actions in Russia—which accounts for significantly less that 2% of team sales—led to a adverse effect of €168 million ($169 million, nowadays) on the company’s functioning result.
About FY21/22, Richemont’s jewellery houses—Buccellati, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels— sent what the group named “a stage-adjust in performance” with mixed gross sales exceeding €11 billion. Both of those Cartier’s and Van Cleef & Arpels’ performances had been explained as “outstanding”, encouraging to boost their sector management.
Again at Istanbul Airport, even devoid of high-expending Russians, the hub was consistently attracting international passengers and growing up the airport rankings in the course of the pandemic. Important nationals arrived from Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
As a connecting gateway for Turkish Airways, which retained much of its route network open by means of the Covid-19 crisis, Istanbul jumped from 14th area in 2019, to sixth in 2020 and second in 2021 guiding Dubai Worldwide, transporting 26.5 million passengers (all primarily based on Airports Council Global information). Final calendar year, targeted traffic at the airport overtook main Western European airport retail hubs like Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle, London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol airports.
Luxury’s resilience
“The luxurious phase has confirmed to be very resilient in the course of the Covid-19 disaster,” claimed Heinemann’s Richter. “Because of the intrinsic and long lasting price of a treasured piece of jewellery, it is attractive to customers. At Istanbul Airport, which was open up when lots of other airports have been shut, luxury manufacturers carried out over regular.”
Not astonishingly, Heinemann is likely to continue tapping luxury’s rich seam and as aspect of that method it is strengthening its collaboration with main luxury makes globally, Cartier becoming just a person example, as the extensive checklist of significant-close brands over implies.