The Mercurius Group provides consultancy services on the commercialisation of infrastructure. We help infrastructure businesses – defined as businesses where large volumes of people congregate in the one location – such as airports, railway stations, cruise ship terminals, universities, hospitals, stadiums, museums and casinos generate untapped commercial revenues from activities such as retailing, food & beverage, car parking and advertising.
And we take pride in doing this without disrupting the original infrastructure operation. You don’t have to choose between efficient operational performance or generating commercial revenue. You can have both. All it takes is early planning, an understanding of what drives revenue generating opportunities and great design.
Examples of what we do include:
After working for four years as General Manager – Planning & Economics at the now privatised Federal Airports Corporation of Australia, Ivo rose to prominence in the travel retail sector with the publication in 1998 of the first edition of the then Airport Retail Study (ARS), which pioneered retail performance benchmarking in the travel retail sector. Ivo conceived, conceptualised, and developed the ARS into a globally acknowledge source of vital information for airports and retailers.
The Airport Retail Study is still published – now in its 10th edition – by Moodie International who acquired it in 2007 and renamed it The Airport Commercial Revenues Study.
In addition to working in the airports sector, Ivo has also worked for two of the largest global travel retailers, Lagardere Travel Retail and The Nuance Group.
For Lagardere, he was Executive GM – Duty Free & Luxury – Pacific between 2012 and 2016. He led the development of the duty free and luxury business for Lagardere in the region, taking it from start-up to a business with a turnover of A$200m, more than 500 employees and over 35 stores.
For Nuance, he was EVP – Strategy & Business Development between 2007-2011, based in Zurich, Switzerland and led the global business development process for multi-billion dollar concession agreements, as well as many smaller concessions, JVs and acquisitions.
His consulting career has also included stints with boutique consultancy, Bach Consulting, industry leading Big 5 firm Arthur Andersen (which then became Ernst & Young) and URS Corp, a Fortune 500 global planning, design and engineering consultancy.
Starting her professional career as a Chartered Surveyor (Property Management and Valuation), Diane has experience across a broad range of property infrastructure from airports, shopping centres and CBD mixed use commercial space. Working with a wide range of investor firms from superannuation funds to private investors and government bodies.
She has proven outcomes in maximising investors’ commercial returns from retail, property, ground transport and advertising activities within a variety of infrastructure portfolios. Testament to this is helping Cairns Airport achieve the highest Passenger Spend Rate of any domestic terminal in Australia, and the highest Duty Free Passenger Spend Rate of any Australian airport with less than 5 million international passengers
Over her career Diane has had extensive development experience. An early career success was overseeing the transitioning of a community shopping centre to a regional shopping centre. Within the airport industry she has played a pivotal role in commercially-driven airport redevelopments.
Consulting clients include Perth, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Townsville, Newcastle and Western Sydney Airport. Having being a retailer herself she understands the intricacies of retail operations and the importance of optimising trading space.
With an extensive 25 years of Travel Retail experience Fraser has held senior roles with 3 major Travel Retail organizations across a broad portfolio of roles and responsibilities.
In particular, Fraser has specialised in Merchandise Buying , Planning and Supply Chain. Fraser has a deep understanding of retail execution and brand management across the travel retail landscape.
Fraser also has an unparalleled understanding of global duty-free supply chains, from design, to implementation and the technology systems that support.
Fraser has also gained broad experience across In-Flight Duty Free, Online, store design and store implementation. Store benchmarking, analysts and category management. Fraser has also built deep knowledge of the concession tender process from bid strategy, bid commercials, bid preparation and presentation. Additionally Fraser has created and conducted tenders for Airports.
The Mercurius Group work extensively with leading travel retail industry publisher, Moodie International, publisher of the Moodie Davitt Report.
This publication is now one of the UK’s most successful multi-media business-to-business publishers and information providers.
The Moodie Report effectively challenged – and reinvented – the whole trade press model, winning widespread industry recognition for its no-nonsense, easy-to-read format, style and content, mercifully free of the usual industry speculation, spin and barely disguised advertorial.
The html-linked e-Newsletter published every Thursday and pioneering e-Zine (Wednesday) are now sent to over 8,000 readers each week (a list that is regularly updated) making them easily the best-read media in the travel retail marketplace, as well as the most respected and trusted.
In October 2003 our brand was extended to The Moodie Davitt Report Print Edition. It was an immediate critical and commercial success and is now a clear leader on a like-for-like issue basis in advertising terms.
Unlike other trade publications, it avoids the semi-advertorial ‘product feature’ approach and focuses instead on in-depth analysis of the industry and of the drivers underpinning the business – such as currency and tourism trends. From 2007 the quarterly frequency was extended to six times a year, bolstered by key supplements – including The Moodie Davitt Report Category Insight and dedicated retailer and airport publications.
In October 2007 we launched the Digital Print Edition, that provides readers anywhere, anytime access to current and back issues. It enhances the user experience through multi-media and a variety of viewing options, as well as allowing search capabilities of all articles, advertisements and images across the entire Print Edition.
Unlike any rivals using similar technology for their paid subscribers, the Digital Print Edition is sent by hyperlink to the entire readership of The Moodie Davitt Newsletter and e-Zine – free of charge.
As an organisation we continue to invest heavily in innovative digital media, including The Moodie Davitt Podcast, The Moodie Blog, The Moodie Davitt Twitter feed and a popular new service called Moodie Davitt Live.
