Alpha creates Travel Value megastore at Manchester

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Alpha Travel Retail is opening its biggest ever airport store, a visionary £1.7m ($2.4m) Travel Value and duty-free outlet in Manchester airport's terminal 1. The open plan concept creates an additional centralised retail focus and the construction involved a major reconfiguration of shops in the airside lounge. A six metre skylight ceiling creates a dramatic galleria effect.

The store is the first major new tax-and duty-free outlet to be built in the UK following the abolition of intra-EU duty free retailing in 1999. A new layout concept is designed to maximise both the duty-free and Travel Value offer with original features to allow free movement of passengers with luggage. Retail design consultants Corsie Naysmith worked with Alpha on the project.

Fragrances and cosmetics occupy the central core, accentuated by a circular lighting feature with moving coloured lights at its hub. The entrance is flanked by Top Ten displays to help customers identify the most popular men's and women's fragrances. Billboards direct customers to leading brands and special discount offers.

Also in the Travel Value area, a colour-coded floor helps customers to find their way easily around the store, and the open plan design enables them to view flight information at all times. Different-coloured and textured marble flooring highlights the main tax-free product areas defined as jewellery, fashion, confectionery, children's goods, electronics and entertainment. By contrast the duty-free area selling liquor and tobacco has distinctive green styling. It is located adjacent to fragrances and cosmetics, with a separate entrance and clearly marked guidelines for customers travelling outside the EU.

Manchester airport's general manager retail Jane Barber commented: "The opening of this new Travel Value shop shows that it's business as usual for shoppers at Manchester airport despite abolition.

"By relocating the shop into the centre of the departure lounge we are creating an area which all passengers will pass through. They will then be able to see for themselves that the tax-free sales available on a wide variety of goods still offer significant savings over high street prices, no matter where they're travelling to", said Barber. The store will be officially opened on April 12 by Liz Dawn, star of the TV series Coronation Street.