Prime location: (Left to right) Gillian O’Shaughnessy, former National Sales and Marketing Manager, Darren Jenkins-Ferrett, Travelex Retail Managing Director, and Andrew Stainforth, Gauteng Regional Manager, about to hand in the Travelex Retail tender at OR Tambo International Airport in November last year.

After a fiercely contested tender between the big four banks and the major specialised foreign exchange retailers, Travelex Retail Foreign Exchange topped the tender rankings. It has been awarded a five-year contract to operate a bureau de change in the international arrivals section of the newly constructed Central Terminal Building at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

Travelex Retail Managing Director Darren Jenkins-Ferrett says, “We are ecstatic with this win. Travelex operates in most of the other major airports worldwide and OR Tambo has always been a missing part of the jigsaw.”

Travelex Retail will begin operating at OR Tambo in September 2008. The lead time will be used to recruit and train staff specialising in airport operations and fine-tuning systems to provide optimum service and fast transaction turn-around times.

Travelex operates at over 700 locations around the world and will bring this global experience to bear, together with the localised knowledge of FX Africa, the South African franchise partner, to create a truly “global meets local” experience for the consumer.

“The airport operation will be, by far, the busiest in our portfolio – open from 05h00 to 22h00, seven days a week,” says Gauteng Regional Manager Andrew Stainforth. Travelex expects the new location to significantly raise the profile of the Travelex brand in South Africa as well as offer its clients the added convenience of collecting their foreign exchange orders from the airport on their way out of the country.

However, the majority of the airport transactions will be generated by foreign tourists. “A location at OR Tambo positions us to take advantage of the rapidly growing inbound tourist market, especially the additional passenger volumes that will be generated when South Africa hosts the FIFA World Cup in 2010,” says Jenkins-Ferrett.