Estée Lauder continues Americas expansion drive

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The Estée Lauder Group is pushing ahead with its retail expansion plans for the Americas region, unveiling plans for new airport stores at Vancouver and São Paulo

The group is poised to open MAC and Crème de la Mer shop-in-shops at Vancouver International in the coming month, and later this summer will open two MAC outlets in the arrivals area at São Paulo Guarulhos International.

"These openings follow the very successful launch of MAC on the Brazilian domestic market," said Estée Lauder Travel Retailing Americas vice-president, general manager Javier Simon. "Everyone knows how tough it's been in Brazil, but we have proved that if you bring the right product to the market, then you can still get excellent results."

The news comes as Lauder prepares to open a duty-paid store at Atlanta Hartsfield airport terminal A, which caters for Delta's domestic flights, in conjunction with Duty-Free Air & Ship Supply. "This store represents something of an experiment for us," explained Simon. "Thanks to the sheer number of passengers, Atlanta was a very specific opportunity for us...although we will of course be monitoring similar opportunities elsewhere."

The company is adopting a determined "business as usual" mind-set in the face of the conflict in Iraq. "Of course we are talking to our retail partners, and reassessing various elements of our operations, but it's too early to be more specific," Estée Lauder vice-president and general manager travel retailing worldwide Fabrice Weber told DFNI. "Like everyone, we're hoping that the effect [on travel-retail] will not be as serious or as long lasting as September 11. The recovery after the 1991 Gulf War took about five months."