Sky Duty Free has confirmed to TRBusiness the opening of the former’s first duty free land border store in Foz do Iguacú, Brazil.

The 550sq m two-storey outlet was inaugurated yesterday in the presence of company staff and civic dignitaries, including the city’s mayor.

Plans to open the shop in April pending the delivery of a final product shipment were delayed, with the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) the chief contributory factor.

“It was a really good opening,” commented Alex Beridze, Director of Operations and Business Development, Sky Duty Free. “Because of the virus there were huge queues – so we couldn’t let everybody in [at once]. We had a lot of people buying lots of products.”

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The shop lists brands from a swathe of suppliers including Pernod Ricard, Diageo, JTI, Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris, Bacardi, Estée Lauder, Brown-Forman and others.

Earlier this year, Beridze shared plans to broaden the company’s regional footprint and he updates that further regional locations will be revealed this week.

Sky Duty Free already runs duty free shops in Langkawi, Malaysia and has had a presence in Brazil for the past year-and-a-half at Foz do Iguaçu, which borders Paraguay and Argentina. The company gained its Brazil operating licence in December.

Administrative delays have hampered Brazil land border shop openings after Receita Federal granted in 2018 the right to operators to run outlets in any of Brazil’s 32 twin cities bordering variously with Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, French Guiana, Uruguay, Guyana, Venezuela and Suriname.

Six operators opened shops last year and Sky Duty Free’s store is part of a further seven stores to open in the country.

More images to follow.