In 1985 Weitnauer placed an ad in the local newspaper that aroused my immediate interest.

Perfumes, international commerce and a beautiful old manor-style house as headquarters right

in the city center – a real dream job, especially for a woman! It has always been my wish to

work for a product category that I can identify with as a consumer (and which is not too

"technically oriented").

Lucky me - I did get the job. Since then I have been meeting many interesting people from the

industry, customers, airport authorities, colleagues at work as well as people from different

cultures.

At that time Weitnauer was one of the most innovative and dynamic players in the world. We

could think “outside the box” and – as a consequence - were not only present in key airports but

had cooperation and partnerships with regional airports, land border crossing points, cruise

ships, ferries as well as international organizations such as the perfumery shop of the Holy See

(and although we have supplied the Vatican with perfumes on a non-exclusive basis for much

more than 30 years we have never been able to find out which fragrance the Popes did wear -

hopefully one of the brands we supplied!).

That was a period that supported the growth of the industry as airport retailing was not compa-

rable to high street retailing in terms of assortment, environment, etc. In the 80s and 90s trav-

elers had gotten used to luxury products and if they could have them at a discount, then they

would buy them. To establish sales plans was easy – an increase of 10 % was achievable year

after year (we were present on four continents, mostly in Italy, Singapore, the USA and Mexico

and usually the economic world rarely suffers in all those regions at the same time). In the 90s

increased emphasis was placed on Africa when the European Common Market called for a ban

against selling tax free products to travelers flying from one EU State to another. And to

reemphasize Weitnauer’s role as one of the leading retailers, Kofi Annan, former Secretary

General of the United Nations and Director of Tourism of his native country, Ghana, came to

see us as he was aiming to modernize the facilities at the airports of his country.

With the opening of Domodedovo in 2001, Russia was ranking in the top 10, too. In conjunction

with our distribution activity we reached a turnover of more than 200MCHF in the best years

(excluding Paraguay).

Weitnauer is not the only company which changed its activity – our industry partners did so,

too. There are still the same brands but fewer manufacturers. Multinational groups have ac-

quired small, independent brands or licenses – and these are not the best partners for distribu-

tors as their organizations are focused on developing the business with airport retailers directly.

We say: “all that glitters is not gold”. As a bulk of tourists were travelling to Turkey in the 80s

and 90s, Weitnauer invested there. But although our people were offering a very good service to

the retailers and the industry as such, Dior decided to open their own office in Istanbul and to

take a vacation from our contractual relationships.

In order to make up for this loss we had to look for new businesses. Since Yugoslavia was falling

apart the vendors needed distributors for (in phase one) Slovenia and Croatia …. And we, we

became a domestic market distributor. Dior was the first brand in our portfolio, Chanel second.

With these brands it was easier to negotiate with other suppliers. Since the 4 markets where we

are present today are fairly small we were – from the beginning - aiming at an uncontested

market leadership .

The company name printed on my business card changed a couple of times during the 28 years

that I have been working for Weitnauer. My “employers” were WTC (Weitnauer Trading Com-

pany), Weitnauer Services, Weitnauer Distribution and Holding.

Difficult days are ahead, but there is no cause for despondency. For the time being the more

traditional categories are still performing well but in the future the mix might be different. To

cope with the challenges Weitnauer continues to invest and to keep on developing its business,

a business that never stands still, a business that had to reinvent itself many times during the

almost 150 years of its existence.

Theres Rudin

What‘s new...

Contents:

Foreword

Local newss

Portraits

Zoom on Toblerone

September 2014

LPI Russia opened Maurice Lacroix exhibition in legendary shopping center of Moscow- GUM. Being touristic place N1 thanks to its location right on Red Square, GUM remains the highly image place where many luxury brands have their own boutiques. The key goal of the exhibition is to communicate about Maurice Lacroix becoming FC Barcelona official watch partner since 1-st June 2014.

For the whole month of July guests of GUM had a chance to see main collections of the brand as Master-piece, Pontos, Les Classiques, Fia-ba. Newly arrived Basel 2014 novelties also took part in the exhibition. The exhibition was sure to attract the maximum attention as it was taking place at the same time as World Football Championship.

With this promotion we could

achieve +20% sell-out compared to

„normal“ months.

LPI: Maurice Lacroix exhibition right on Red Square in Moscow 1-31 July 2014

What‘s new... Page 2

Page 3

New brands:

Ritter Sport and Tigre Blanc Vodka

added to our portfolio

Sales:

Confectionery net sales value

increased by 64% compared to last

year.

Spirits net sales value increased by

65% compared to last year.

Agreements signed with new

subdistributors for confectionery

sales distribution

Organisational changes:

Aras Tan: new Spirits

Brand Manager.

Dilek Karakaya: new

Travel Retail & Key

Account Manager

Ömer Can İgşen: new North Cyprus

Sales Supervisor Samet Çalışır: new Warehouse Staff Muratcan Aydın: new Spirits Sales

Supervisor

Ivo Gasser, Lindt R e g i o n a l S a l e s Manager, has moved to Weitnauer Turkey Office at the beginning

of the year.

Personal:

Kerem Kerimoğlu, Weitnauer Turkey Managing Director, got married in

August… Congratulations!!!!!!

DEM: Highlights 2014

What is your greatest childhood memory?

My childhood was in the Soviet Union time. My par-

ents sent me to pioneer Camp for hole summer. Pio-

neer Camp belonged to plant, which produced engines

for spacecrafts. My grandmother worked on that

plant. In the summer camp was very fun. My friends

and I spent the whole day in nature playing different

sports ranging from football and tennis ending. Also

there were a lot of different interest groups. Most of

all I liked the circle aero modeling, where we were

doing and launch rockets.

What song would be Track One on the soundtrack of

your life?

Song of my life is Modern Talking "Win the race". Life

is a struggle with himself. That song gives me internal

motivation to go further.

Who is your greatest influence?

My son was born in January this year. It has turned

my life and filled it with new meaning. My wife and I

gave him the name Old Norse name Gleb, which

means beloved of the gods.

Who would you most like to have had a drink with?

I would like to somehow have a drink with Vladimir

Putin. He is the greatest of mod-

ern politicians, who returned

Russian rightful place in the

modern world.

What journey would you most like to make?

Several years ago I was in Cuba. It was like traveling

in a time machine to the Soviet Union time. Now I

would like to make a trip to Tibet to learn more

about the culture that is not so much like a Europe-

an.

Who do you admire for their courageous actions?

I admire Putin for his decisive action to reform Rus-

sia and protect our economic interests in the world.

What historical character would you like to have

been?

Russian Tsar Peter I. Tsar Peter I did

a visa-free regime with Europe and

introduced in Russia modern

achievements of European civiliza-

tion.

What is the greatest sight you’ve ever seen on your

travels?

The greatest sight I have

ever seen in my travels is

glacier Aiguille du Midi in

Chamonix Mont-Blanc. My

friend and I went down

this glacier with snow-

board. There you can enjoy the power, beauty and

grandeur of nature.

If you were free to do one thing, what would it be?

I would give all the people peace. This question is

topical even today in modern Europe.

Portrait: Vladimir Kotcharovski (CFO, LPI)

What‘s new... Page 4

What journey would you most like to make?

I would like to visit Cuba, for the situation of the

country (to be able to know the people, and their life

story)

Who do you admire for their courageous actions?

MY FATHER - my idol

What historical character would you like to have be-

en?

Walt Disney - for his

creativity and philoso-

phy of life

What is the greatest sight you’ve ever seen on your

travels?

The Taj Mahal - A monument to love, amazing!!

If you were free to do one thing, what would it be?

I love my work, I would not change my life, I'm happy

doing what I do

What is your greatest childhood memory?

My best memory as a child,used to go to school by

bicycle with my father, sitting in the front, and

my brother behind, when we used to cross the

border from Paraguay to Brazil to study.

What song would be Track

One on the soundtrack of y-

our life?

My Way – Frank Sinatra

Who is your greatest influence?

My greatest influence, my father, an example of

life

Who would you most like to have had a drink

with?

Richard Gere

Page 5

Portrait: Sulema Reichardt (General Manager, SIGMA)

The famous Swiss chocolate belongs to the assortment of Weitnauer Distribution and we are

proud to sell this Swissness abroad:

In Samnaun

In Livigno

GET INVOLVED!

Please feel free to send us your comments, suggestions, ideas for

improvement,… Your feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Email to: m.andolfatto@weitnauer.ch

Zoom on… Toblerone