In Memoriam: Pierre Viarnaud

With profound sadness we report the passing of Pierre Viarnaud, a highly regarded travel retail executive who enjoyed a stellar 32-year career before his retirement in 2017.

Pierre, who died on 12 April after a two-year battle with cancer, began his career in the drinks industry with then-sector giant Seagram in 1985, covering Eastern Europe and Greece.

He enjoyed frequent visits to what was then the Eastern Bloc before the domino-effect fall of the communist regimes across the region.

In 1990, he relocated to London to take over European and Middle East duty-free operations, reporting to long-time Seagram Global Duty Free boss Dan Daly.

After the disbanding of the Global Duty Free division in the mid-90s, Pierre took over what Seagram called its ‘development markets’ – Eastern Europe, Turkey, the Middle East and Africa.

“I did that for a couple of years. Survived the first plan and cost-cutting exercise but not the following,” he recalled wryly in The Moodie Blog*, a familiar refrain of so many good and talented executives in our industry over the years.

While Seagram “disintegrated”, Pierre set up his own consultancy, which he ran until Gebr Heinemann Co-owner Claus Heinemann and Managing Director of the time, Harry Diehl, approached him in 2000 to work with the company’s then-joint venture operation in Greece.

At the end of 2001 he moved to Gebr. Heinemann headquarters in Hamburg, assuming the role of Director Russia and CIS.

Long-time colleague and friend Dan Daly told The Moodie Davitt Report, “I was honoured to know two Pierre Viarnauds.

“The first was a top-rate executive who was admired and respected by superiors, subordinates and customers alike. He overcame the challenge of creating a unified regional division out of a highly fragmented and locally focused team.

“In the process, he consistently achieved or surpassed both quantitative and qualitative objectives for Seagram’s duty-free businesses in Europe and the Middle East.

“The second and most important Pierre was a close family friend. My wife Eileen and I spent many enjoyable hours with him and his wife Janice. We treasure those good times and we will miss them. His family is in our prayers.”

The Moodie Davitt Report joins with Dan and the travel retail community in expressing our deepest condolences to Janice, children Tania and Mark, and wider family.

Martin Moodie writes: My heart is heavy in both hearing and reporting this news. I was close to Pierre over many years, a friendship forged during my reporting of Seagram’s business in the Eastern Bloc, a region that like him I visited regularly. Pierre would always go out of his way to help me with insight and contacts and my copy was that much more informed as a result.

Over time, both in his Seagram and Heinemann days, we drank many a good glass of wine together (usually Italian or French) and after his retirement he invited me on numerous occasions to visit him in Italy to drink more of the former. I so regret never taking up the opportunity because of work pressures. Life, alas, is too fleeting to miss such moments.

On hearing the news of his passing, I recalled my Blog from 2017 (pictured below), headed ‘Bidding a fond adieu to Gebr Heinemann’s Pierre Viarnaud’.

I wrote then, “Pierre is one of the truly good guys of travel retail. Good in all senses: as a human being, as a professional, as a man of impeccable integrity. 32 years in the business, many of them spent in tough emerging markets is a heck of a legacy.”

Those words are just as salient today but more poignant. Now I, and we, must bid a different but even fonder adieu to Pierre.