Hennessy opens first pop-up store

The House of Hennessy at Heathrow’s Terminal Five is the first boutique opened by Hennessy outside the Cognac region, and the first liquor pop-up for World Duty Free.

Hennessy has collaborated with the World Duty Free group and Heathrow to create the House of Hennessy, which opened at T5 last week.

The store is open for the next four months, which gives Hennessy a key spot during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Orthodox Christmas, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. It is expected that between seven and 10 million passengers will pass through T5 during this time.

Guillaume Reslou, Moët Hennessy senior travel retail key accounts manager, told the drinks business that travel retail is “hugely important” for the brand and for LVMH as a group, so this kind of pop-up could roll out into other travel retail venues.

Reslou said: “This boutique is the first of it’s kind and offers a truly premium spirit experience for Heathrow travellers, particularly the rare opportunity to taste vintage eaux de vie in this unique environment. The detail that has gone into every element of the customer experience in the pop up store is first class and demonstrates the lengths Hennessy goes to for perfection.”

Reslou added that destination targeting is a big factor in how the House of Hennessy is being staffed, he told db: “The pop up store is open from 6am to 10.30pm and we have nine staff working across this time. These staff are multi-lingual and destination targeting is a key part of what we are doing.

“There are flights to Russia in the morning, so we have Russian speakers in the store and Chinese and Mandarin speaking staff in the afternoon. We also have staff who speak Nigerian, because there is a flight out in the evening and this is a big market for Hennessy now.”

The centrepiece for the store is a striking crystal “orgue”, which displays a range of Hennessy’s eaux de vie, with vintages ranging from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Steve Small, Moët Hennessy Europe’s travel retail sales development manager, said: The orgue is inspired by the eaux de vie library at Hennessy. What we wanted to do is help share the story of Cognac and help people understand the art of blending that goes into each of our Cognacs.”

Many of the products available in the store are limited edition including Hennessy XO Collector’s Edition (£195.00) and Hennessy Private Collection 4 (£49.99), a travel exclusive product, Hennessy Privé will also be available priced at £285.00. The Private Collection 4 has already proved to be the number one seller in the store.

As well as walk-through customers, tasting experiences can be booked in advance at hennessy.com, worlddutyfree.com or heathrow.com.