Airport duty free shops in Canada registered a 16% year-on-year increase in sales to reach $375m in 2015 and the Frontier Duty Free Association (FDFA) says that this figure is only likely to continue growing this year.

 

Although the Canadian land border duty free shops didn’t see such a dramatic sales increase, they did register growth in sales of 4% to $149m and overall, the combined airport and land border sales for Canada reached a total of $524m for 2015.

 

“With the current exchange rate, and key tourism initiatives taking place, we are well positioned especially for this upcoming high season in 2016 to exceed sales expectations and traffic numbers,” says the FDFA.

Click to enlarge table on sales breakdown.

The FDFA also says it is currently pursuing the ‘Road TRIP’ initiative – with all government officials, both federally and in communities across the country – to allow Americans a 5% rebate on all goods purchased, to be claimed at land border duty free shops.

 

“We know that over 60% of the time, customers, if given a cash rebate will spend that money in our stores and our suppliers products,” says FDFA. “We will keep the membership informed of our lobbying progress to have this initiative approved in the Federal Budget.”

Click to enlarge table on sales breakdown.

The main categories that dominated sales in land border duty free were as follows (in order of sales highest to lowest – based on December 2015 numbers). The only change for the month of December in sales category order was glassware leading sales over the “other category:

• Alcohol (liquor, liqueur, wine, coolers)
• Tobacco, Cigars, Loose Tobacco
• Perfume, Cosmetics, Skincare
• Food
• Beer (beer, malt-based coolers)
• Jewellery, Watches, Clocks
• Accessories (purses, wallets, sunglasses, etc.)
• Clothing (including hats, fur, leather)
• Souvenirs
• Office and Travel Supplies
• Other
• Glassware, crystal, china, figurines, porcelain
• Crafts/Arts
• Electronics, Cameras, Binoculars, etc.

REGIONAL SALES BREAKDOWN:

Land border shops in the Prairie region registered sales of $9.4m, which represented a decrease of 11% year-on-year in 2015. Shops in the Pacific region registered total sales of $23.2m, which was a slight decrease of 2.27%.

Ontario registered sales of $84m, which was an increase of 6.5% in 2015, year-on-year and finally the Atlantic/Quebec region saw sales of $31m up 6%.