Dubai Duty Free tells TRBusiness that it is enjoying a ‘fantastic year’ and has registered a sales increase of 9% between January and May, versus the same period last year. Reporting total sales of US$853.65m in that period, Colm Mcloughlin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free tells TRBusiness that the growth was led by ‘precious jewellery’.

 

“The growth in sales is led by precious jewellery at 40%, and then cigarettes and tobacco at 35% followed by cosmetics and electronics at around 25% each and then watches at just under 14%,” says Mcloughlin.

 

Read the full interview inside the Top 10 Airports issue of TRBusiness in August.

 

“In terms of location, both Concourse A and Concourse D have shown strong growth as has Terminal 2, and the departures business has grown by about 10.75% whereas arrivals has declined slightly due to the introduction of VAT and excise duty on arriving passengers.”

 

$1.93BN IN SALES LAST YEAR

DDF registered ‘record-breaking’ annual duty free sales of $1.93bn for 2017, exceeding 2016’s sales turnover of US$1.85bn by +5.6%, boosted by it 34^th anniversary 25% discount period ringing in US$54m in just three days.

 

 

However, Mcloughlin believes that the company can better this performance in 2018. “We are confident that we will reach our sales target, which is due to many factors including our continuous investment on the retail offer across the terminals.

 

“Concourse B is currently undergoing a major renovation of its fashion offer and at the end of this year, we will open several new fashion shops on this busiest Concourse (Concourse B represents nearly 35% of the total business). This will represent another phase of the renovation of the retail offer in Concourse B, as this area will be ten years old in October of this year.”

 

DDF also continues with the redevelopment of the retail offer in Concourse C – to be completed at the end of the third quarter – which will result in about 4,500sq m of additional retail space.

 

 

The retailer grew the concourse retail footprint substantially in December last year, making room for new perfumes, cosmetics, liquor and tobacco areas, which apparently produced a 35% growth in the business compared with the same period in 2017.

 

“With the above projects and strong promotions from suppliers along with the expected growth in passenger numbers, we feel that we are well on track to exceed the $2bn sales mark for 2018,” adds Mcloughlin.