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Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14737 12/16/08 06:43 AM
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KarenS Offline OP
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Taken from the Moodie Report online:


Harding Brothers grows luxury presence by capturing Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract

US/UK. Harding Brothers has won the contract to operate the retail shops on board Regent Seven Seas Cruises from January 2009, cementing the company’s position as the leading operator in the US luxury cruise market.

Regent operates three ships on its Seven Seas' itineraries: Voyager, Mariner and Navigator, all offering luxury round-the-world cruises plus destination trips to Africa and India, Alaska, Antarctica, Caribbean, South America, Asia Pacific, Europe/Scandinavia, South Pacific and more.

Harding Brothers Chief Executive Neil Harding said: "Winning the Regent contract is a real coup for us, securing Harding Brothers’ position as the leading onboard shop operator in the US luxury cruise market and enabling us to further improve our support and service to all the companies we service in the region.”

Harding Brothers said it aims to upgrade the existing retail offers to better cater for guests. It plans a programme of guest jewellers and will also introduce specific destination collections not previously seen on cruise ships.

Voyager and Mariner, both with 700 guests, will be stationed in Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale respectively in January 2009, before leaving on Regent’s ‘Masterpiece Series’ World Cruises. To mark the voyages, Harding Brothers has commissioned bespoke 14ct Globe pendants mapping the ships’ journeys with major destinations accented by precious diamonds. Both ships will have five Harding Brothers staff on board.

Navigator (490 guests) will lie in Fort Lauderdale in February with four Hardings’ staff running the shop. Sailing down to the Caribbean and back, Navigator will be the first vessel in the Harding’s fleet to showcase watches by Joseph and Thomas Windmills – described as “unique timepieces which mark an exciting return to Old English watch making values and materials”.

n addition, several top jewellery designers will be showcasing their collections on board the Regent vessels, including Caroline Dadlani, Christin Van Geuze and D’Annunzio.

A new logo range is also being developed which is being tailored to the Regent guest profile.

Harding also offered a frank assessment of the onboard retail business during this period of economic instability, and said the company was reviewing its offer across the range.

“The current global economic downturn presents an unusually challenging environment," he said. “We are reviewing all categories, putting a far greater emphasis on value propositions and broadening the range, particularly in areas such as fine jewellery, to ensure all price points are covered across the range of ships on which operate.

“We remain convinced that the more specific to the cruise experience our offer is, the more we will continue to maximise revenue onboard. The recent launch of Solstice has been greatly encouraging, particularly with the sale of three Solstice diamonds on the inaugural cruise.

“We are also putting a lot of effort into ensuring price competitiveness throughout all the itineraries, principally the Caribbean, to ensure we remain broadly competitive with the offers guests are greeted with when they step ashore. However, we are competing with business models with a far different margin structure and cost base, so it is not straightforward.”

He added: “Value propositions such as liquor, tobacco and fragrances continue to be strong and our watch business is going through the roof. Clearly, though, we can only sell to the guests that are onboard and, if figures reduce, then we have to be more innovative and bespoke to increase revenue spend per head. It’s challenging, but it’s what we pride ourselves on being particularly good at.”


Karen

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Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14738 12/16/08 09:15 AM
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Marc Offline
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I sure hope they still continue to carry toothpaste and aspirin. :D



Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14739 12/16/08 11:54 AM
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DenaH Offline
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I guess the strategy is and will be more of an upscale duty free shop than a mid-priced souvenir/sundries shop. On our recent Voyager cruise, we had $54 of remaining shipboard credit to spend and we went in to look for some tasteful, not tacky, logo items. There was really nothing in the store that appealled to us -there was only a small handful of logo items and the rest was expensive jewelry, watches, perfumes, Izod shirts, and the like. Personally I wouldn't look to buy watches or jewelry on the ship, unless it was destination specific (like black pearls in Tahiti), but lots of other people must!

Dena

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14740 12/19/08 07:23 AM
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Jim B Online
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All I want is a logo T-shirt and baseball cap!
On last cruise they were all out!!


Jim

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14741 12/19/08 08:41 AM
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Yallcruise Online
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I sure hope the new firm is better than the one on board now. I really tried to find something to buy but there was nothing that appealed to me at all. The logo jacket that was in the gift shop was $125 and looked like it was worth $50 at the most.

Good luck to Harding Brothers. Hope they can do a better job.

Carolyn

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14742 12/19/08 09:12 AM
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cruiseluv Offline
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I must be very ignorant because I have no clue who/what Harding Brothers is!

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14743 12/19/08 09:23 AM
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KarenS Offline OP
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Maria, it is explained in the first post, they are the retailers who are taking over the current company to operate the ship's boutique.


Karen

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Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14744 12/19/08 09:34 AM
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cruiseluv Offline
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Quote
Originally posted by KarenS:
Maria, it is explained in the first post, they are the retailers who are taking over the current company to operate the ship's boutique.
Karen, I got that part. What I meant is I have never heard of this company.... Is it supposed to be a well known outfit?

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14745 12/19/08 09:46 AM
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Jim B Online
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I agree.
Harding Brothers who?? confused
And why do we care as long as they have
what we want CHEAP!! :D


Jim

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14746 12/19/08 10:15 AM
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Karen

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Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14747 12/19/08 11:48 AM
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Big company . . . I'd never heard of them either Maria. Lots of ships at all levels. Let's hope for the best . . .

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14748 12/21/08 06:05 PM
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kirky5 Offline
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Hooray! Anything has to be better than what they have been offering. This is great news!
Lynn

Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14749 12/27/08 01:27 AM
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Hambagahle Offline
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Well, they seem to serve the industry! So I do hope they know about nice logo items - more than just visors and hats! - amd the "sundries" that one tends to run out of - toothpaste etc etc - as well as the jewelry they talked about. For me, if I want jewelry I go to my jeweler...I trust him. I don't think I would buy anything significant on a ship!!


Hambagahle
Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14750 12/27/08 05:10 AM
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TedC Offline
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Harding Bros. was the label on nice logo shirts and jackets we bought in Antarctica on Explorer 11 (now Minerva) in 2006 which was chartered by Radisson. now Regent.

The items have held up very well. They weren't cheap but not too expensive considering we were a captive audience.



"Life is far too serious to be taken seriously."
Re: Harding Brothers captures Regent Seven Sea Cruises on board retail contract #14751 12/27/08 07:55 AM
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Wandra Offline
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Good logo-wear is important I think. With the Regent logo, or the ship of course, not Harding or whoever.

Hope they get it right--I've not been pleased with Navigator or Voyager gift shops in the past couple of years. The PG gift shop, another matter--full of great stuff, but then that's a separate contractor, and quite a different retail problem since they are always in the same part of the world.


Wendy
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Booked: Uniworld Egypt, 2015
Tauck Amsterdam to Budapest, 2016
Paul Gauguin, Societies & Tuamotus 2016

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