Hudson Group Enters into Agreement to Acquire Thirty-Four Brookstone U.S. Airport Locations Company to Serve as Exclusive Brookstone Airport Retailer
East Rutherford, N.J., October 10, 2019 – Hudson Group (NYSE: HUD), a Dufry company and leader in North American travel retail, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire assets related to the operation of Brookstone stores in U.S. airports from Apex Digital, Inc. Hudson has also obtained the right to be the exclusive airport retailer to operate Brookstone stores through a license agreement with Bluestar Alliance, LLC, owner of the Brookstone brand and trademarks.
Brookstone is an established American brand well known for its unique selection of innovative products in the travel, wellness, home and entertainment categories. As part of the agreement, Hudson will also have the exclusive right to sell select Brookstone merchandise in its travel convenience stores.
The agreement covers 34 airport stores, of which 30 are currently open and operating. Of these 34 stores, 33 stores are in airports where Hudson has existing operations.
“The addition of Brookstone to our already diverse portfolio of branded concepts further strengthens our retail offering and nicely complements our travel convenience business,” said Roger Fordyce, Hudson Group CEO. “We are pleased Bluestar has entrusted Hudson to grow Brookstone’s brand across U.S. airports, which underscores our strong reputation of successfully operating branded and specialty stores in the highly-regulated travel retail environment.”
Joey Gabbay, CEO of Bluestar Alliance, owner and manager of the Brookstone brand, said, “We are proud to announce our new partnership with Hudson Group, the preeminent leader in the industry, who will now operate, manage and most importantly, grow our Brookstone branded retail footprint in North America.”
Added Ralph Gindi, COO of Bluestar Alliance, “We look forward to the exciting continued expansion of the Brookstone brand under the guidance of our new, best in class partner, Hudson Group.”