Success through Shared Strengths in Partnerships

Interview with Chief Commercial Officer Inken Callsen and Chief Sales Officer Florian Seidel.

You have both been living the Heinemann spirit for more than 25 years and have helped to shape it. What changes have you experienced as being particularly significant during this time?

Inken Callsen: I am particularly proud of how we have all managed the challenges of the past three years together. Before, we were all growth managers, but now a whole new mindset has developed. It's impressive how we've come together and how well this cohesion has done us as a company. This time has made us very aware of the connections between the individual areas of business and brought us to a different, more collaborative, and data-based way of working. All of this has prepared us perfectly for today, where we are once again managing growth with greater awareness of common goals, efficiency, and transparent data.

Florian Seidel: When I started as a trainee at Gebr. Heinemann at the end of the 1990s, everything was focused on our Frankfurt site. Then came European growth, and we moved on to the USA and to the Asia Pacific region. Gebr. Heinemann has developed into a global player and created a strong business network with partnerships across many cultures. Our reliability is still the basis for this today. We have grown primarily through retail and have always kept an eye on distribution. Our broad positioning across all sales channels is a unique selling point and a key success factor in competition.

Since summer 2023, the two of you have also been working together on the Executive Board. How is that going?

Florian Seidel: We have known each other for 25 years, have accompanied each other in our respective professional development, and have regularly exchanged views on our various different topics. As a result, we have a great understanding and appreciation for each other and are also a good team in the management.

Inken Callsen: Across the entire management team, we work together through pragmatic exchange, which includes open doors and short coordination processes. For the year 2024, we have set clear joint targets for purchasing and sales, laying the foundation for all corporate areas to support each other in our work. This way, we are also creating an important prerequisite to continue our success story.

Heinemann stands for trusting partnerships externally as well. In what form?

Inken Callsen: Collaboration is key! This includes honesty, openness, and a long-term approach as well as common goals and a mutual desire for growth. A partnership must also be able to deal with difficult issues. Together, we want to develop the market with the respective strengths of the partner and create added value for travelers. We want to achieve success together. The relationships we have with our suppliers is one example of this. I would like to structure them in such a way that our purchasing directors work together on a plan with our brand partners over a long-term period of three years in order to get to know their growth strategy and offer them something that fits in with it. We want to show how reliable and forward-thinking we are. I want us to always be the first choice for suppliers: for trying out new things, for investments and innovation, and because we are driving the business forward.

Florian Seidel: A similar set of values is also important for such close cooperation — because at Gebr. Heinemann, we negotiate partnerships and not just contracts. This is demonstrated, for example, by our long-standing commitment at Istanbul Airport with our joint venture partners Unifree Duty Free and ATU Duty Free and our investment in the expansion of the airport.

What are the biggest challenges in the market for you today?

Florian Seidel: While we need to look ahead again and focus on our successes, we also have challenges to overcome. For instance, our business in Eastern Europe has been affected by the Russian war in Ukraine and in Israel by the terrorist attacks by Hamas. In addition to the severe human suffering that has been and continues to be caused, this has also resulted in economic setbacks for us. But Gebr. Heinemann's diversified positioning enables us to balance some of this out. Our business model is resilient!

Inken Callsen: We now find ourselves in a complex position when it comes to the geopolitical and economic developments as well as cost factors. Additionally, we are managing the strong return to growth. This is a challenging situation to handle. At the same time, we need to work in a more data-based and far more efficient way. The new form of management is to deal with these three challenges at the same time.

Does the Gebr. Heinemann mission statement help to master these challenges?

Florian Seidel: As a globally active family business, our mission statement provides clear orientation of what Gebr. Heinemann stands for. We need our partners and customers to understand this to inspire people around the world together — and turn their travel time into valuable time. At the same time, the mission statement is a living asset of our corporate culture that we continue to fill with life. Part of our vision is to be the most human-centric company in travel retail, and we support our employees in impressing the travelers in our shops every day. I am very pleased that we have already succeeded so well in involving and inspiring our employees worldwide.

Inken, how much did the supply chain problems caused by the pandemic continue to keep our supply chain organization on tenterhooks in 2023?

Inken Callsen: The supply chain and its global interdependencies have gained enormous visibility due to the effects of the pandemic. Even though we have overcome numerous challenges, such as the lack of products and transport capacities, others are still noticeable, such as cost increases and a shortage of skilled workers. The situation during the pandemic made it clear that the effects of a disrupted supply chain reverberate over the long-term and that problems cannot be solved overnight. We have turned all of this into opportunities and will focus on a transformation of our supply chain backbone into a sustainable, resilient, and the industry's top-performing supply chain.