Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire (SDA) has begun operating Zagreb Airport’s travel retail business under a 15-year agreement.

 

This is the first time that the 50-50 SDA joint venture between LS travel retail subsidiary Aelia and Aéroports de Paris has stepped outside of France where it currently works very successfully at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports.

 

SDA said: “The takeover will be a two-stage project, the first being a full refit of the existing shop and the second will be the opening of further duty free shops in the new terminal. As a first step, the new company will operate two shops – a main shop dedicated to duty free (600sq m), and a landside souvenir shop (47sq m) from December 1st, 2014.

 

“The range of products spans all categories, from perfumes to cosmetics to alcohol, confectionery and tobacco, as well as fashion and accessories. The new company will also strengthen the local product offering [for] which there is a strong demand, and will pay particular attention to delivering optimum customer service.”

 

The retailer adds that by the end of 2016 the airport’s brand new terminal should be able to handle 5m passengers compared to 2m today. [The new opening date for this new expanded terminal is expected to be December 3, 2016-Ed].

 

SDA also adds that it believes this is an excellent opportunity to develop its activities outside of Paris and to showcase its ‘expertise’ in travel retail with ‘exceptional shopping’ up to European quality standards.

 

Guy Bodescot, CEO of Société de Distribution Aéroportuaire (pictured below) said: “The Zagreb project shows that we do not need to create a new venture every time we want to work together,” he said. “And this will facilitate future development.”

 

Although the retail operation will be owned by the joint venture, Bodescot indicated that the stores would be branded Aelia Duty Free.

 

Adding his comments, Zeljka Ficko, Managing Director of the retail activities at Zagreb Airport: said: “It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to partner up with one of the best companies in the world when it comes to travel retail. It gives you strength to cope with the challenge of providing the best, ultimate travel retail service to your customers and Zagreb as the biggest international airport in Croatia has the obligation to do so for its domestic and foreign passengers.”

 

Aéroports de Paris was awarded the Zagreb Airport development concession in 2012, along with BBI, TAV Airports, Marguerite, IFC and Viadukt. ADP adds that this acquisition is ‘an important step in its international strategy to export all its know-how abroad’.

 

Zagreb Airport handled a total of 2,300,231 passengers in 2013, a slight drop on the 2,342,309 processed in 2012.

 

[BOTH IMAGES ABOVE: How the new terminal building may look when it is finished in 2016].