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“Duty Free is like a well-staged scene.”
IT IS A DISTINCTION TO SHOP AT THE ATU DUTY FREE SHOPS IN ATATÜRK AIRPORT
Could you please tell us about the structure of ATU? ERSAN ARCAN: ATÜ (Akfen- Tepe - Unifree), was established on 26 May 1997 as a partnership between TAV and Unifree-Gebr. Heinemann. After the International Terminal of Ataturk Airport was commissioned in January 2000, operations at ATÜ started. Here, the goal was to turn the airport into a center of attraction by establishing a new, world class Duty Free company. As a result of the experience of these three companies and effective team management, ATU has reached its current status in an important metropolis like Istanbul. A very dynamic company, ATU has experienced enormous growth during the last ten years, thanks to the synergistic relationship between the companies under TAV Airports Holding and also due to its own innate ability to adapt quickly. We currently rank 16th among all Duty Free shops in the world. When the number of passengers is compared to the revenue which is generated, ours is among the highest in the world. Our success is on par with the largest hubs in the world. Since 2000, we’ve been operating 24/7, 365 days a year. We haven’t even closed a single cash register during this time. What are the keys to success in the sector you operate in? ERSAN ARCAN: You have to see it as a lifestyle. It is a business in which you must continuously generate new ideas. When you start to look at life from this perspective; the movies you watch, the books you read, and the places you visit open new horizons for you. You must never forget that you can only be successful through effective task allocation and team members who share the same lifestyle.
Could you please tell us about the ATU family? ERSAN ARCAN: ATU is a family of 1,050 employees. It is made up of Sales and Operations, Category, Strategic Planning, Project and Business Development, Corporate Communications and Customer Relations, Human Resources, Quality and Health, Procurement and Management, Information Systems, Logistics, Finance, Accounting and Internal Audit Departments. In addition to Istanbul Ataturk Airport, we are also located in the Izmir Adnan Menderes and Ankara Esenboða Airports, and the Tbilisi and Batumi Airports in Georgia. In December 2009, we opened stores at Enfidha Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Airport in Tunisia. How has the concept of Duty Free changed at Ataturk Airport after the establishment of ATU? ERSAN ARCAN: In fact, the year 2000 saw a revolution in this area. The Duty Free concept was modified from being a simple retailing concept based on selling goods from a stand to a more comprehensive retailing notion that covers modern designs and concepts. In other words, from being an 80 m2 store we became a 4,000 m2 shopping center. But it is not only a dimensional change we are talking about. We also changed the management philosophy behind the duty free concept as well as product management. The world’s most distinguished leading brands came to Turkey for the first time at Istanbul Atatürk Airport right after the opening, at the end of 2000. We received the Frontier Magazine Airport Retailer of The Year award. In 2000, professionals of the global duty free sector rushed to Istanbul and monitored the transition in Istanbul either secretly or openly, making appointments with us. Since 2000, leading brands have been positioning us as the Duty Free store where they are achieving their best results in the travel market. 
What steps have you taken to reach this level of success? ERSAN ARCAN: We have managed to offer the right product to the appropriate passenger profile with the right sales representatives. The main factor behind this success was our shared enthusiasm as a team. The shopping experience at airports is very different from that in the city. Here, you are trying to communicate customers who will be flying at 10,000 meters in a few hours. This fact encourages us to distinguish ourselves and be much more dynamic and considerate, adopting a retailing concept that emphasizes service. We know that when service doesn’t meet expectations success is not possible. As we’ve achieved this success, I assume that we’ve managed to understand our customers, their moods and demands, and that we’ve established an organization that will provide them the right service. At this point, being able to provide passengers with a comfortable setting at which to shop is crucial. We work on many details such as the locations, designs and strategies of product displays and the type of music played inside. From the number of cashiers to the dress and attitude of the personnel, Duty Free is like a well-staged scene. When creating this setting, we went beyond the best practices in the sector and created the grandest stage possible. Today we are held up by many as an exemplary duty free store. How do you manage to relate to the moods of the passengers who are your potential customers? ERSAN ARCAN: Until they reach the passport control point, passengers’ minds are occupied with a series of physical and cognitive tasks, such as parking the car, carrying baggage, check-in, passport transactions etc. All these tasks result in a certain degree of physical and emotional strain on people. After this challenging process you need to provide passengers with a relaxed setting where they can spend some good time. At that point, service companies such as BTA and Prime Class step in and communicate the message “now it’s fun time.” After the hassle of check-in and passport control, when passengers see our colorful and crowded stores with modern designs, and meet our smiling sales staff providing them with quality service, they let go of some of this stress until they board their flights. During this time, we work as a team to offer customers the highest quality service and products and to use more than one service. We are aware of the fact that we are representing Istanbul and Turkey, which is a serious responsibility. How was your award-winning store Old Bazaar established? ERSAN ARCAN: Because we host passengers from different profiles at the airport, we need to apply different retailing concepts. In this regard, we thought that we need to go beyond classical duty free products. So we established this 250 m2 store called Old Bazaar at one of the most critical points in the airport, where we sell products unique to Turkey.
We opened this store in 2007. It draws a lot of interest from the public and was selected as the “Best Concept Store” in the travel retail market in 2008. We have shown that what we do here is not simple duty free retailing, that we can bring innovative ideas to the duty free concept and add value to it. This is an example which shows that passengers at the airports love to buy things from specialty stores which sell local and cultural products. Old Bazaar is a store where we can present high quality original Turkish brands at competitive prices and where we’ve seen customer satisfaction grow.
Are you planning to expand the Duty Free area as part of the expansion project for Istanbul Ataturk Airport? ERSAN ARCAN: Parallel to the rapid changes at our airport, we are changing too. The changes we have observed in passenger flow in the departures area caused us to review our stores in 2007. If you fail to move in line with changes and developments, you lose the chance to relate to your passengers. We realized that we’ve not changed the arrivals area as much as necessary since 2000. We want the arrivals area to be as much in demand as the departures area and to provide the same quality of service there as well. When renovations at the arrivals area of Ataturk Airport are completed, the total store area will increase from 820 m2 to 1400 m2, making it the world’s largest arrival shops area. When this project is completed, our stores will be exemplary for the global duty free sector.
What we do at the arrivals area of the airport includes not only the renovation of stores but also the creation of a new concept. With this renovation project, we are looking at three totally different store concepts. We are proud to be providing our passengers with the same comfort and luxury in the arrivals area. The new Arrivals “Shopping Center,” with its Duty Free format, has turned traveling through Atatürk Airport into a distinction. Helping your guests feel special is not possible simply through the opening of a new store. It requires being distinctive in our services, utilizing our more than 10 years of experience and effective team work as well as our communication skills. 150-200 people worked hard to create the arrivals stores, which are the fruit of hard and self-sacrificing work that lasted for three and a half years.
Every year, at least one of our team members receives the Best Product Representative Award. Our successful sales team has attracted the attention of many brands, mainly in Europe. We are a dynamic, competitive, successful and reliable family. This family also lends its spirit to the decoration of our stores and improving communication with passengers. Thanks to both our stores and our personnel, we are able to communicate our message easily.
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Index
AWARDS
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