Dufry CEO On Rationale For New Avolta Name - Forbes

Avolta will be the new corporate parent name for a series of familiar retail and food and beverage (F&B) brands found at airports, assuming Dufry shareholders approve the change at at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on November 3 in Basel, Switzerland. A new loyalty program with the same name will also launch next year.

The identity revamp follows the merger of the world's biggest airport retailer, Dufry, with the travel F&B giant, Autogrill. Tourists and travelers across the globe will be familiar with many of the consumer-facing brands from the two entities such as Hudson and HMSHost's retail brands across much of North America and further afield; Nuance; World Duty Free; and Colombian Emeralds in the Caribbean.

What exactly is behind the Avolta name and new purple logo (a spinning globe-like gif made of curved vertical bars cropped at the top and bottom). Aside from the need to find a unifying identity for the combined businesses of Dufry and Autogrill, CEO, Xavier Rossinyol, told me: "We needed a new name because we wanted to make clear to our people and the market that we are more than the sum of Dufry, Hudson, Autogrill and HMSHost.

Dufry CEO Xavier Rossinyol: "We are more than the sum of Dufry, Hudson, Autogrill and HMSHost."

Dufry

"We are something new, with the qualities, the know-how and the heritage of all those prior companies but with a new consumer and digital focus. Second: we believe that today the world is a visual world and our logo is extremely good in that it is different, and dynamic," he added.

The color purple

The core purple hue is softer than the red of Dufry's old logo and also stand more for inclusion and diversity, underlining these values that the company has been forging over recent years. It can also be adapted depending on the location and retail brand. "We can change the color to tie in with an airport identity [useful during pitches for airport concessions-Ed]; or with one of our brands, and it still works and is easily recognizable," said the CEO.

As for the name itself, Dufry went through a lot of options. Starting with an 'A' was an important consideration, presumably to be at the top of any alphabetical listing among its rivals. Vol in some Latin languages translates as flight, but is also quite close to the word for turn around or spin, while the abstract globe represents the company's international footprint.

"Volt is also a measure of energy, representing our dynamism as a company," said Rossinyol. "Actually Alessando Volta was the Italian physicist and chemist who is credited with inventing the electric battery. We believe the new logo is recognizable and stands for travel and energy, two things we'd like to be associated with. And, at the end of the day, we believe it is a cool name."

The website Avolta.com does not exist yet, with some "technicalities still to overcome" but it will be up and running within the next few months according to Dufry, possibly by the end of the year.

Assuming shareholders formally approve the new branding, Avolta will become the corporate name and the B2B face of Dufry-Autogrill and all its brands. The company will have a new ticker on the SIX Swiss Exchange based in Zurich, and all equity markets.

Avolta will pull together a group that became much more diversified this year, operating in more than 75 countries and 1,200 locations, with 5,500 points of sale across three segments—duty-free, travel convenience and essentials, and F&B. It also operates across a wide range of channels from airports and motorways, through to cruises, railways and other travel locations. The diversification should also make the group less vulnerable to macro-economic impacts in specific geographies.