Lithuania-based Avia Solutions Group is launching a new duty free and travel retail operator called Globus Distribution with the intention, it says, of running DF&TR shops across Europe and Asia.

 

Avia Solutions Group, an aviation business solutions provider, is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) and has more than 17 subsidiaries globally. The group offers a number of services from supply chain and airport management, to pilot & crew training, aviation staff leasing, ground handling & aircraft fuelling, and business charters.

 

The DF&TR move for the company – which had revenue of LTL 554m ($215.4m) in 2013 – appears to be based on an underlying distribution model. ASG plans to “engage in the promotion and sales of internationally-known beauty, beverage and other branded goods, including those produced by Lancôme, Christian Dior, L’Oréal, Montblanc, Ray Ban, Jack Daniels, Glenfiddich, Hennessy and Johnnie Walker”, it says in a statement.

 

Globus Distribution will launch its first duty free shops at the end of 2014 and early 2015 – but ASG did not say where.

 

HIGH AMBITIONS

Within five years, the company has ambitions to operate almost 40 duty-free stores at various air, road and rail border crossings across Europe and Asia.

 

“As the demand for travel is constantly rising around the world, we certainly see a big potential in the duty free and retail segment,” says Tomas Vaisvila (left), Head of Aviation Infrastructure Management and Development at ASG.

 

“Based on our extensive experience in various airport development projects worldwide, we fully understand the exact expectations from customers in distinct regions across the globe. For that reason, we have decided that it was high time for us to use this expertise in practice and establish our own duty free company.”

 

Vaisvila believes that Globus Distribution might also help support the company in its airport development projects.