Hartshorne to bow out of duty-free

John Rimmer

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The outgoing managing director of Tourvest Duty Free talks to RavenFox.com about the challenges ahead

Tourvest Duty Free managing director Maurice Hartshorne is to take up a new role within the South African tourism and retail group after six years heading its travel-retail business. From April 1 he will become managing director of Tourvest's jewellery business, and will be replaced by the group's chief financial officer Ian Hay.

Hartshorne told RavenFox.com that he was "very excited" about the move, which satisfies his desire to relocate to Cape Town from Tourvest Duty Free's office in Johannesburg. "For me this is a huge vote of confidence from the Tourvest board. They want me to turn around the group's jewellery business, and given that I spent 10 years in the jewellery and watches industry before joining Tourvest Duty Free, I was an obvious choice. I was taken by surprise when first approached but it is a very positive move for me."

Hartshorne described his successor in the duty-free division as "a very high-powered individual". "Ian expressed an interest to move from the financial side into operations and I believe he's a very good choice. It's a win-win situation for Tourvest. I'm hoping to accompany Ian to TFWA Asia Pacific in Singapore to introduce him to the duty-free business."

Hartshorne insisted that Tourvest was well placed to build on its portfolio of airline retail concessions and said the company would study any opportunity to operate on the ground. "Since 1999 we've made good progress and the intention is to continue. We turned Tourvest Duty Free around from the mess it was in back in 1999, and the Frontier awards we have won since then shows how much we've achieved. We have a good mix of young and experienced people on the duty-free side and I hope I'm leaving a good base on which to build. We're looking at two airline concessions now and we've always had the aim to move into ground stores, although finding the right entry point is the key as the business is highly competitive. Tourvest is still in acquisitive mode and our plan is to acquire not just in duty-free, but also in our jewellery and destination store businesses. There's no shortage of financial backing from our owner Imperial Holdings, though we generate enough cash ourselves."

Hartshorne said the handover period was under way, adding that he would attend the Baselworld watch show in April.