Dear Readers,
The year 2025 was once again marked by challenges for the travel retail industry. Geopolitical conflicts in various regions and the resulting macroeconomic volatility created an environment of uncertainty for global businesses. Nevertheless, the Heinemann Group demonstrated resilience and achieved strong growth. Compared to 2024, group turnover increased by 10 percent to 4.7 billion euros, a clear signal of our ability to navigate complexity and seize opportunities.
This growth was broadly based across almost all sales channels – Airports, Border Shops, Cruises & Ferries, and Inflight – and was particularly driven by Turkey and the Middle East Africa region. Newly opened locations in Iceland (Keflavík), Turkey (Antalya), and Saudi Arabia (Jeddah, AROYA Cruises) contributed positively, underscoring the strategic importance of our international footprint. In the Asia Pacific region, we successfully renegotiated contracts with airports. This led to a significant improvement in our results and reinforced our growth perspective with our airport partners. Finally, our strategy of investing in both retail and distribution business models has continued to demonstrate its success, particularly during periods of heightened market volatility.
Preserving long-term financial and entrepreneurial independence remains one of our overarching goals. In this context, the successful closing of a new and enhanced syndicated loan in April 2025 was a key milestone in our financing strategy. By strengthening our capital structure, we have established a solid foundation for strategic investments and sustainable growth in the coming years.
Looking ahead to 2026, we continue to see a solid underlying business environment and believe that our company is well positioned to benefit from long-term growth trends, supported by its strong market position, international footprint, and operational agility. At the same time, the recent conflict in the Middle East has increased uncertainty in parts of the global environment and may lead to higher volatility in economic conditions and travel demand. Against this backdrop, we remain focused on disciplined risk management and are confident in our ability to navigate a more dynamic environment while continuing to execute our strategic priorities and deliver sustainable value. leo.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kai Deneke — CFO