A new Vera Bradley store has opened at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) Terminal 1 to provide shoppers with offerings that include quilted cotton luggage, as well as handbags and backpacks with colorful designs.
Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), operators of LAX, and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), jointly touted the Vera Bradley store opening as part of the LAX Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) initiative, noting it is owned by Apryl Stewart, founder and CEO of Skyview Concessions, a 100-percent ACDBE operator.
“Owning and operating my own store at LAX is a dream come true,” Stewart said. “When I started as a retail sales manager at LAX, I only dreamed of owning a store at one of the world’s largest and busiest airports in the world. Now I am living that dream.”
Located in LAX Terminal 1, home to Southwest Airlines, the Vera Bradley store also offers a selection of Pura Vida hand-crafted bracelets and jewelry.
“We are thrilled to see Apryl open her first independently-owned store here at LAX,” said Chris Adkins, URW’s director of the Advance Network initiative. “This is a great example of how a minority woman who has worked her way up in the business has evolved to the next level of owning and operating her own unit. We are lowering the barriers of entry and are seeing great success with many new businesses in our programs.”
Stewart began her career in the airport business more than 20 years ago and eventually partnered with travel retail operators including Paradies Lagardère, Hudson, Areas USA and DFS to operate airport retail from newsstands, specialty concepts, duty free, and food and beverage concepts at LAX and San Francisco International (SFO).
