Dubai Duty Free (DDF) has announced record duty free sales of US$2.029bn in 2019.

The result represents a 0.7% increase on the US$2.015bn posted in 2018.

The travel retailer crossed the US$2bn mark in late December 2019 following a highly successful 36^th anniversary campaign over three days, which offered a 25% discount across a range of merchandise.

Perfumes (15%) and liquor (15%) each accounted for the lion’s share of sales, with returns of US$307.85m and US$304.24m, respectively.

Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Dubai Duty Free.

COSMETICS +11%

In third place, cosmetics (11%) notched revenue of US$232.53m and displayed impressive year-on-year growth of +11%.

Tobacco (11%) ranked fourth with sales of US$223.88m, followed by electronics at US$152.89m.

Departure sales, which accounted for 89% of total revenue, grew by 1.5% year-on-year to US$1.808bn.

Arrivals sales totalled US$181.98m and took a 9% share of total sales.

In 2019, DDF enjoyed more than 24.3 million sales transactions – equating to a daily average of 66,500.

A total of 64.578 million units of merchandise were sold in the year.

Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Dubai Duty Free said: “Overall, it has been a fantastic year for the operation and I would like to thank H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Dubai Duty Free for his ongoing support.

“I also join His Highness in thanking our great team of staff, our suppliers and of course our customers, for their contribution to our growth and success.”

McLoughlin points to the evolution of DDF’s retail offer across the terminals at Dubai International and Al Maktoum International in 2019, with Chanel and Gucci boutiques openings plus the introduction of a Maison Christian Dior shop among the highlights.

“We are also looking forward to the opening of the new 1,100sqm retail space in Terminal 3 Arrivals this month,” he added. “The new arrivals shop is much more visible to passengers in the baggage area and has a fantastic liquor retail offer.

“In addition, we will continue the second phase of the refurbishment of the two FoodPlus shops in Concourse B and Dubai Duty Free will continue to enhance its retail offer within the fashion category in the second half of the year.”

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