Lagardère Travel Retail appoints new CEO for Senegal & Gabon

Lagardère Travel Retail today announces the appointment of Sountou Bousso as Chief Executive Officer, Lagardère Travel Retail Senegal & Gabon, with immediate effect. Sountou takes over from Bruno Bouchacourt, who is retiring after two decades at Lagardère Travel Retail.

A Senegalese citizen, Sountou Bousso will be leading the development of Lagardère Travel Retail’s operations in both Senegal and Gabon. This appointment is aligned to Lagardère Travel Retail’s ambition to promote local leadership and empowerment. These are critical to strengthen the company’s position as leading international Travel Retail operator in Western Africa and to enable greater agility and flexibility in the day-to-day management of the business.

Lagardère Travel Retail strives to combine the highest international standards with a commitment to promote and leverage local expertise and know-hows. Its world-class international concept Aelia Duty Free brings together powerful, international brands and unique ranges of local brands to give a true sense of place.

Sountou Bousso is joining from Newrest International Group, the global catering group, where he most recently was General Manager for Cameroon and Senegal. Before this, he has been the General Manager of Newrest in Angola and in New Caledonia. Sountou hold Technician Diploma from Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique (Senegal) and Engineering degree from ESIAB School of Engineering (France). Sountou also holds two Master’s Degree in Marketing Management and International Trade (Brest Business School) and in International Management (HEC Paris).

Bruno Bouchacourt has spent nearly 20 years at Lagardère Travel Retail and he has held many different roles in France and abroad. Among these, Bruno has been the manager of the duty-free operations in Eurodis (Eurotunnel – France), and he has overseen the development of international duty free operations. In 2012 he moved to Italy and successfully contributed to the takeover of the duty-free activities from Aeroporti di Roma. After the acquisition of Airest in 2015, he became responsible for the entire duty free and fashion business in Italy.

Commenting on the appointment, Frédéric Chevalier, Chief Operating Officer, EMEA at Lagardère Travel Retail, said : « I am delighted to have Sountou onboard and confident his international experience, in depth local knowledge and track record of running local operations within complex global organizations will further consolidate our position as leading international operator in Western Africa. “I also want to take this opportunity to thank Bruno for his tremendous contribution to growing the company and in particular for successfully launching our operations in Western Africa. I know he will be very missed by all the colleagues and business partners he has worked with over so many years. I envy Bruno’s future guests who will very soon enjoy his cooking talents in the guest house he will be opening in the South of France”.

Lagardère Travel Retail started to operate in Senegal in 2017 at Blaise Diagne airport and in Gabon at Libreville airport in 2019.

ABOUT LAGARDÈRE TRAVEL RETAIL
One of the two divisions of the Lagardère group, Lagardère Travel Retail is a global leader in the travel retail industry. Operating 4,800 stores across Travel Essentials, Duty Free & Fashion and Foodservice in airports, railway stations and other concessions in 39 countries and territories, Lagardère Travel Retail generated €5.5 bn in sales in 2019 (managed 100%).
Lagardère Travel Retail has a unique holistic approach aimed at exceeding travelers’ expectations throughout their journey, and optimizing landlords’ assets and partners’ brands.
www.lagardere-tr.com  ●  @LagardereTR