Peter Justesen have appointed Lars Hjartbo as Head of Retail for a new strategic corporate start-up in partnership with IFR Partners.Together with Jan Sander Jakobsen, Head of Commercial, Lars will develop Peter Justesen’s presence in the Nordic Airline Travel Retail market.Peter Justesen has been a key player in the global duty-free market for diplomats for 70 years and the BLUE SKY TAX FREE concept offers the Airline Travel Retail Market a fresh partner for industry leading tax free pre-order services.Leveraging the company’s extensive range, excellent B2C sales infrastructure and the management team’s solid experience, Blue Sky Tax Free offers long term growth unrestricted by the difficulties of the past years

Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia is one of Europe's largest airline retailers due to the well-established pre-order marketing programme that generates a turnover of almost 100 USD per passenger. This figure is believed to be the world record among airlines.As from 2015 I shall also be managing the purchasing of all wines, spirits, tobacco and confectionery sold on pre-order on our three sister airlines: Condor (Germany), Thomas Cook Airlines (U.K.) and Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium). These airlines will also benefit from the pre-order service provided by Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia.When fully implemented the annual turnover is expected to reach 200 mio. USD on all four airlines within the Thomas Cook group.During the two last annual negotiations with duty-free suppliers to the Thomas Cook Group I have managed to keep buying prices flat (i.e. from 2013 to 2015) and to increase sales per passenger with 20% (wines), 5% (spirits) and 3% (tobacco) in a very competitive market. Products for in-flight consumption (beer, soft drinks, wines etc.) increased with 14% in 2014 compared with 2013. All this as a result of good category management.

Responsible for all purchasing and category management within the Catering & Retail Division of Scandlines.11 people work in the category management organisation which is responsible for an annual turnover of 200 mio. EUR, coming mainly from Europe's largest (8,000 sqm) BorderShop in Puttgarden/Germany and from sales on the six ferries on the Roedby-Puttgarden and Gedser-Rostock routes which transports 8 mio. passengers annually.Within a relatively short period of time, the team and I have managed to increase the average spend-per-customer with more than 10% (2013 vs. 2012) in the BorderShop.A campaign onboard the ferries lifted the spend-per-passenger in the high-margin Perfumes & Cosmetics category with 30% by the end of 2012.

I developed a new type of web-based online boardershop where Swedish costumers could pre-order alcohol online and have their products delivered on a bus line that goes between Malmö (Sweden) and Copenhagen (Denmark).I closed down the service to pursue a new career with Scandlines (above).

Consultancy contract.Strategic consulting, including business plan & sales strategy and retail support development.

Business plan & sales strategy development.Responsible for on-board service, catering, duty-free and travel retail operation throughout the Sterling Airlines network.Sterling Airlines was Scandinavia’s largest low-cost carrier. Sterling operated 27 Boeing 737s to over 110 destinations, annually transporting in excess of 5 million passengers. The company went bankrupt in November 2008.

Areas of responsibility:Business plan & sales strategy development. Responsible for the airlines' duty-free and travel retail operations (peaked at 150 mio. USD annual sales in 2000) including the important pre-order/mail-order sales programme that generates 85% of the airline's turnover.Supplier negotiations and category management within the categories Wines and Spirits, Perfumes & Cosmetics, Confectionery, Tobacco and Gifts Items.Partly involved in catering and very much involved in the production of mail/pre-order catalogues and websites in Danish/Swedish/Norwegisn and Finnish languages.

I was a buyer of bulk wines and bottled wines at 'Svendborg Vinkompagni' - Denmarks largest wine importer and part of COOP.

Irma is Denmarks luxury supermarket chain with an assortment of high-end brands and private labels. I was as a buyer in confectionery, coffe/tea, beverages and wines/spirits. During 1990/1991 I developed a shop-in-shop concept for Irma with products from UK based retailer Marks & Spencer.It was a great time to work for Irma which at the time had 200 outlets and own factories (wine bottling, coffee roasting plant, margarine and cheese production, own bottling of soft drinks and much more).