FORMIA's plentiful partnerships
This is a special feature from PAX International’s 2023 April Amenities & Comfort issue on page 6.
FORMIA's amenity kits are responsibly produced products, keeping the business truly sustainable
As air travel activity continues to recover, amenities supplier FORMIA is experiencing a rapid uptick in demand from its airline customers globally. The company is further strengthening its presence in the Americas region with a growing team at its New York City office, headed up by Niklas Sandor, Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director of FORMIA Americas. Sandor forms part of the FORMIA senior management team with CEO & Managing Partner Roland Grohmann and Chief Customer Experience Officer Marisa Pitsch. In this Q&A, the team tells PAX International how FORMIA’s on-the-ground presence, purposeful partnerships and responsibly produced products fuels its ability to add value to every passenger journey.
PAX International: What is FORMIA highlighting right now in terms of products and partnerships?
Niklas Sandor, Chief Commercial Officer and Managing Director of FORMIA Americas
Sandor: FORMIA’s recent activities with airlines in the Americas region include the continuation of Delta Air Line’s award-winning amenity kit program in partnership with Mexico-based B-Corp Someone Somewhere, with the launch of the Premium Select kits and a special edition pink kit for October to honour Breast Cancer Awareness month. Production of the kits generated jobs for over 250 people across Mexico’s most vulnerable states, providing social and economic support for underprivileged communities, and even enabled a direct connection between the passenger and the artisan who created their kit via a QR code on the bag.
Added to this, FORMIA has recently launched refreshed amenity kit collections for American Airlines in collaboration with luxury design brand, Shinola, featuring a consciously crafted, striking new design for the Flagship kit, developed for passengers to take home and use long beyond the journey.
The amenity kit collections for American Airlines in collaboration with Shinola
PAX International: How does FORMIA tie sustainability into its efforts to enhance the travel experience of modern travellers while prioritizing purposeful partnerships?
Chief Customer Experience Officer Marisa Pitsch
Pitsch: One example is the partnership FORMIA facilitated between China Airlines and iconic performance brand, The North Face, which upgraded the amenity kits for Business Class and Premium Economy by adding functionality and reusability for the modern traveller with the option to take home the amenity bags and incorporate them into their active lifestyles.
The upgraded the amenity kits for Business Class and Premium Economy by The North Face
Sustainability has long been a focus for FORMIA. During the pandemic we invested in developing a dedicated in-house team headed up by Sarah Klatt-Walsh, FORMIA’s Sustainability Lead. Bringing onboard REBEL, experts in quantifying environmental impact, in 2020 FORMIA committed to transforming the entire business to be truly sustainable and are well on our way to reaching the target of becoming a net-zero carbon company by 2030.
PAX International: How does on-the-ground growth contribute to FORMIA’s success, and what is the link to sustainability?
Roland Grohmann, CEO & Managing Partner at FORMIA
Grohmann: With a team which has doubled in size to meet the increase in global activities with customers, FORMIA firmly believes that bringing our own people along the journey is a key part of transformation. We have recently invested in sustainability training for every employee – sharing key trends, innovations in new sustainable materials and how every individual can play a part in driving FORMIA’s sustainability strategy forward. It doesn’t stop there. We are already able to offer net-zero carbon amenity kits and are incredibly excited to be developing the industry’s first-ever net-zero carbon amenities program for an airline, to be launched in the coming months.
