Marco Polo Airport retail concepts created by JHP

JHP is to give a final briefing to contractors for the construction of six retail travel concepts for the new terminal at Marco Polo Airport in Venice, Italy, next week.

The airport is opening the £157m terminal to replace the existing one in June. It is being built to handle six million passengers a year compared to the existing terminal’s three million.

The airport has spent between £4m and £5m on design and fit-out of the terminal and JHP has commanded a six-figure fee for the work.

The creation of the retail brands is the consultancy’s second project for the airport. It has already designed the interiors of the common areas of the terminal, including signage and lighting, and created the retail planning and logistics of passenger flow within the terminal.

The brands are: Elite Duty Free, Elite Travel Retail, which will feature luxury brands and aspirational products, a bookstore named Hub and a deli food concept called Bottega dei Sapori.

The airport will also have two coffee bars, Caf̩ РMarco Polo and Culto Caffe & Cioccolato, which will concentrate on hot chocolate rather than coffee sales.

JHP has created the interiors, brand identity and brand positioning, name generation, signage and merchandising systems.

‘Each one had a different brief. But, the idea is that they are positioned among high-quality luxury outlets, such as Gucci. The consumer will look at these concepts and perceive them to be of the same quality,’ says JHP strategic director Steve Collis.

‘The [concept behind] these brands has been created so that they can be taken out of the airport and moved to the high street or in railway stations,’ he adds.

The consultancy started work on the project at the beginning of November last year and began working on the interiors for the airport in February. It won all work without a pitch, but presented credentials and the ‘process it would use to tackle the job’.