Prouds Duty Free – the DF&TR fascia of Fiji’s Motibhai Group – has reported ‘slight growth’ in sales year-to-date at its departures and arrivals concessions at Nadi International Airport in Fiji.

Speaking to TRBusiness during the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference this week in Singapore (12-16 May), Motibhai Group Executive Director Bhupendra Patel says the result is positive news in light of a reported drop in visitor arrivals to Fiji.

“We’ve remodelled our departures at Nadi Airport for the Japanese market as we have direct flights to Japan now [effective last year – Ed], but spend per head is pretty stagnant.

“We have a watch area and made it more accessible as it was a little hidden and we’re getting good sales results.

“The remodelling caters for more Fiji-produced merchandise with a great emphasis on confectionery as it’s a growing category for us. Most customers are Australians, New Zealanders and Chinese. We sell to the Japanese as well.”

The single departures shop at Nadi Airport measures approximately 800sq m.

Established in 1931, Motibhai Group works across various FMCG verticals including luxury domestic and travel retail in areas such as importing, exporting and wholesaling

Motibhai Group’s duty free operations fell under the Prouds branding in 1996 following a decision to align the market with its domestic town, city and resort locations.

The Group currently boasts 17 stores, including at Nadi International Airport where it oversees shops under its latest 14-year contract, which commenced in November 2015.

Alongside departures, Prouds runs arrivals shops, with the main sales competition stemming from duty free operators at price-aggressive Australian and New Zealand airports.

Notwithstanding this, arrivals remains a strong part of the business, notably in the local spirits segment.

SPECIALITY FOOD INVESTMENT

Elsewhere, Prouds has expanded its footprint regionally, with two shops at Jacksons International Airport – also known as Port Moresby Airport – in Papa New Guinea.

“One very unique aspect of our travel retail operations is the emphasis we place on our locally grown and processed products,” said Patel, who highlights special packs such as cookies, ginger and honey aimed at the tourist market.

This week, Prouds introduced a ginger elixir as it broadens its speciality food offer, with more ample store space and a stronger concentration on Fijian products.

“We find that if a customer does not have anything to buy, they will end up buying something from this category,” continued Patel.

“Most of our suppliers create special travel retail packs for duty free that create impulse sales; of course, at airports you cannot rely on high prices for something that is available in the local market and is not price competitive.”

While Prouds has doubled the space allocated to speciality food items, it remains a very small footprint, up to 12sqm from 8sq m.

“We are passionately associated with Fijian entrepreneurs who come up with unique products and we get involved with them as genuine partners by engaging from planning to production,” said Patel. “That also includes customised packaging so that visitors to our shores can take something unique from Fiji.

“That is what sets us apart from others as we leave a lasting impression and offer the real taste of Fiji to our customers. In this process, we also end up encouraging people to realise their ideas and turn them into reality.”

Patel attended the show with colleague Nilesh Patel to meet suppliers, discover global trends in travel retail, network, explore new opportunities and to push the company’s credentials as one of the oldest continuously run airport duty free and travel retailers.

“In the intervening years we have brought innovation and world-class operations at Nadi Airport duty free store,” added Bhupendra Patel.

“More importantly we have always presented our offerings to meet the exacting requirements of the ever-changing passenger mix. This has been the hallmark of our success, as passenger satisfaction is of paramount importance.”