The ‘Airport Concierge’ service includes hotel reservations Wi-Fi roaming device and cell phone sales and rental, onward travel (train/bus/limo transfers), car hire, city and national tours, and museum access.
The new focus is on airside Duty Free retail and on luxury brands. Excess has always been one of the leading airport travel goods retailers, outselling all of its rivals through its busy outlets on the concourses of Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, as well as on major rail stations. Excess has now come up with a new branding and state-of-the-art luggage retail, which is complemented by the market leading luggage retail website, www.luggageexpress.co.uk, which allows airports to earn revenues both on airport and before travel.
The company is a major vendor of market leading brands, and as the UK’s #1 airport luggage retailer has taken the initiative to redevelop its busy luggage stores, with what is effectively a total rebrand, with a new look and feel, which will appeal to airports in terms of both airside and landside luggage retail. The first of the new stores opened recently in Heathrow’s modern Terminal 5, and has been a major success story with an immediate uplift in sales approaching 50%. As the company continues to roll out its new look stores, it believes that it is well on the way to firmly establishing itself as the UK’s market leader, and a major player in the airport luxury travel goods market.
The company’s success lies in its ability to offer multiple services, and to spread costs across a wide range of complementary offers. Excess originally came to Heathrow as a Baggage Shipping provider. “It was apparent from the outset that anyone shipping bags often needed to purchase replacement luggage,” observed Excess’s Head of Retail, Maire Elliott. “We were able to immediately combine Excess Baggage Shipping, with Luggage and Retail and Security Bag Wrap.” Passengers were able to use Excess’s International Baggage Shipping services, whilst at the same time acquiring quality luggage at a discount price. “The Bag Wrapping service was also an immediate hit offering passengers the ability to protect their bags in transit against damage, moisture, loss and pilferage,” she continued, “and importantly for us, we instantly had three businesses with one overhead cost.”
The company shortly thereafter became Heathrow’s main supplier of Left Baggage services, whilst at the same time expanding its operations to other major airports and onto the rail network.
The first of Excess Baggage’s new stores opened recently in Heathrow’s Terminal 5, and has been a major success story with an immediate uplift in sales approaching 50%.
Today, Excess offers well over 20 different services to Airports, grouped into three main areas. The core baggage services include Luggage Shipping, Bag Wrap, Left Luggage, Lost & Found/Lost Property, and of course Luggage Retail, whilst the range of ancillary services is impressive. These fall into two main areas. The first – ‘Airport Concierge’ – includes Hotel Reservations (inbound/outbound), Wi-Fi roaming device and Cell Phone sales and rental, Onward Travel (Train/Bus/Limo transfers), Car Hire, City and National Tours, Museum access, and diverse services such as flowers, sim cards for inbound and outbound passengers, Office Express services for travellers, as well as dry cleaning for staff and passengers.
The second group of services is at the cutting edge of Duty Free. Elliott said: “Some time ago, we started operating Duty Free Shop & Collect, and we immediately realised that there was a massive untapped Duty Free ‘Home Delivery’ market, which prompted us to create ‘Shop & Ship’ and ‘Send-a-Gift’ services. Today, this has evolved into a whole range of Duty Free fulfilment options, ranging from check-in/security queue Duty Free pre-order, through in-lounge and PRM ordering, conducted by service agents, with gate/onboard collection.”
Excess is enjoying a significant level of expansion this year with a large number of new outlets opening in its rail network to satisfy demand associated with the London 2012 Olympic Games, as well as a range of new airport locations. Expansion in the domestic market is progressing alongside overseas opportunities in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and South East Asia.
For further information from Excess Baggage Group Ltd call: +44 20 8324 2002, or email: retail.sales@excess-baggage.com
