Aelia Group and Lagardère Services Asia Pacific are teaming up to bring the best in French contemporary fine food to one of the world’s best airports, Hong Kong International. The sister companies in the Lagardère Services group have been awarded a contract to operate a 53m² store in the airport’s West Hall under the FAUCHON PARIS brand, following a tender for Speciality Retail Concepts at HKIA terminal one. The store will open in March 2009.

The partnership between Aelia and Lagardère Services Asia Pacific is designed to pool the strengths of the two companies. Aelia will bring its expertise in buying, product selection, marketing and merchandising, while Lagardère Services Asia Pacific adds retailing excellence in Australasia, with a keen understanding of the Asian traveller and a well-established support network.

The choice of Fauchon as brand partner in the bid was not a difficult one to make, said Aelia head confectionery and fine food buyer Sandrine Verrecchia-Godin. “We know from our experience in France that Fauchon is a brand with strong appeal to Asian travellers,” she commented. “Not only is the quality of Fauchon’s products second to none, but the strong marketing behind the brand gets a great response from our target customers. We are very confident that the HKIA West Hall is an ideal location for this unique concept.”

Fauchon Travel Retail manager Fabrice Paturle added: “We are delighted by this wonderful news, especially as this will be Fauchon’s first airport boutique in Asia. I would like to thank Airport Authority Hong Kong for selecting our project, and Aelia and Lagardère Services Asia Pacific for their great team work.”