Cedar has won a new multinational contract for three airlines. Cedar will handle the inflight retail magazines for Virgin Atlantic Airways, British Airways and Spain's second largest carrier, Vueling.
The account was awarded by the South African-based concessionaire Tourvest Duty Free (TDF) as they seek to consolidate the production of the magazines and catalogues which are so crucial to inflight sales.
TDF is capitalising on the growing trend for airlines to outsource their onboard retail operations. British Airways is the latest airline to make the move. TDF currently manages a customer portfolio of 11 international carriers including South African Airlines, Kenya Airways, TAAG, Air Mauritius as well as Virgin Atlantic and Vueling, the other two airlines involved in the publishing tender.
Cedar triumphed after a competitive pitch involving five agencies drawn from existing suppliers and outside companies operating in the wider inflight magazine sphere. The publisher is well known for its long relationship with BA - and successfully relaunched the former Shopping the World catalogue as High Life Shop! in 2005.
But as Max Williams, Head of Sales and Marketing of TDF says, it was Cedar's ability to create bespoke solutions for Virgin and Vueling as well as BA that proved crucial. We are committed to delivering an innovative end to end marketing strategy to push the boundaries of inflight retail and to achieve our objectives we are delighted to appoint Cedar as our creative partner.
TDF is widely expected to extend its portfolio as more airlines choose to maximise cost savings and efficiencies by using a dedicated supplier.
Clare Broadbent, CEO of Cedar, commented: "This win consolidates our position as the leading producer of quality content for airlines. But we also drew heavily on the retail expertise we've gained, especially with Tesco. That combination of retail and inflight creativity across all platforms will make TDF and Cedar a formidable combination as more and more carriers go down the outsourcing route".