Travelpharm’s Impressive Growth Paves Way for New Store

Travelpharm’s Impressive Growth Paves Way for New Auckland Airport Flagship Store

After 10 very successful years at Auckland Airport, leading retailer TravelPharm is expanding its presence with the opening of several new stores in the international terminal today (Friday, 1 December).

The biggest of these is an airside flagship TravelPharm store focusing on premium quality, high strength health supplements and skincare. Located on Level One, it is expected to attract a large portion of the 10 million international passengers who use the airport each year. At the same time, the company will launch a new airside premium honey speciality store called Beecology. These two stores will be followed on January 18 by the opening of a new landside TravelPharm store on the ground floor of the international terminal near the check-in desks.

“We have been working on our new stores for the past year and are very excited to be opening them in time for Christmas and the summer holiday season. These stores are a major step up from our previous offering, and the upmarket design fits with our aim to provide customers with the best experience and offer premium New Zealand products,” says Yoon Song, the founder and Managing Director of TravelPharm.

Designed by Indesign, the new TravelPharm stores have a natural look and feel, with New Zealand wood, curved fittings and plenty of greenery.

TravelPharm General Manager NZ Retail Hashveen Prasad says a combination of digital and static screens will allow content and language to be changed out according to flight schedules. TravelPharm first opened in Auckland Airport in 2007 with just five staff. Today, it employs more than 170people of 14 different nationalities. All retail staff are multi-lingual and work according to flight times and passenger profiles so they can serve visitors from their own homelands.

TravelPharm Retail Manager Kerrin Harrison says all TravelPharm retail staff are specially trained in last-minute and must-have travel necessities, New Zealand health supplements, organic and natural skincare and Manuka honey products.

Song himself has more than 20 years’ travel retail experience in New Zealand and his native Korea and is committed to offering customers the best products for their health and wellbeing. His business at the airport began with several coin-operated massage chairs but, within two years, he established TravelPharm, now a multi-million-dollar company with 10 stores across Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown Airports and the Queenstown CBD.

Over the past decade, TravelPharm’s group turnover has grown from $1 million to more than $37 million and it continues to expand rapidly.

“We are a proven leader in New Zealand’s unique airport retail and tourism environment, winning multiple awards including Auckland Airport’s Retail Excellence Award 2015, the GM Retail Achievement Award in 2015 and 2016, Retailer of the Year 2015 and 2016 and Best Specialty Retailer 2015 and 2016,” says Mr Song.

As well as a commitment to great customer service and quality products from more than 50 premium brands, TravelPharm has its own development division and currently offers 20 ranges of health and beauty products exclusive to its stores.

“We don’t just sell, we tell the story of New Zealand. We support and source local brands which generates significant economic benefits for New Zealand while providing travellers with the highest quality products. We work closely with the industry to act as an incubator. Everything we develop is based around the following principles – best product, unique ingredients, scientifically proven and locally sourced,” says Mr Song.

He uses his deep understanding of Asian markets to further this, playing an active role in R&D and the company’s leadership, while day-to-day operations are run by Mr Prasad, who has more than 19 years’ experience in managing retail operations at Auckland Airport.

An example of Mr Song’s innovative approach included last year’s launch of a supplement called Go Healthy Go Lung Health Plus, which was created to help combat the effects of smoking and fight pollution in markets such as China. TravelPharm was also the first retailer at Auckland Airport to offer WeChat mobile payments, and now has Union Pay and Ali Pay too.

With visitor numbers continuing to rise and China now New Zealand's second-largest tourism market, Mr Song is confident of TravelPharm’s continued growth, much of which will come from the introduction of more locally sourced, ingredient-focused, exclusive products. By working closely with New Zealand’s favourite brands, he hopes to have at least another 20 products on-shelf within the next year.

Mr Song is a tireless ambassador and advocate of New Zealand’s products and is dedicated to educating people about what New Zealand has to offer in natural ingredients. “Traceability and the growing free independent travellers (FITs) market is a particular focus for us. These travellers are frequent visitors to our stores and are usually high net worth individuals who have the ability to strongly influence and educate other potential customers back home. We are also looking closely at emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam,” says Mr Song.

The average spend per customer is NZ$500 but Mr Song believes TravelPharm can double sales in five years’ time by offering 100 exclusive and premium products that benefit people from “head to toe”. As if that goal was not ambitious enough, ultimately, Mr Song wants to further extend TravelPharm in New Zealand, while also opening dozens of New Zealand concept stores in Korea, Japan and China.

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