In an exclusive post-results video interview, Dufry CEO, Julián Díaz tells TRBusiness that he is more proud of how the company has conducted itself in the last couple of months – to collectively to bring about stability in a ‘zero sales’ scenario – than of anything else the company has achieved in the past 17 years.

“I think what we have done in terms of protecting the company is similar in many ways to how we dealt with previous crises. With the initiatives we have implemented, Dufry today is a stronger company, more solid from a financial point of view, which enables us to create solid foundations for our future, should the situation not improve at the speed we expect.”

During a H1 2020 results call with analysts and the media, the leading global travel retail operator reported a -62% decline in turnover to CHF 1,586.9 million/$1.73bn for the first half of 2020 as a result of unprecedented levels of disruption for its retail operations across its global network of stores, triggered by Covid-19.

“We have been able to create a sustainable company in a situation where we faced zero sales, more or less…Zero sales with close to 40,000 employees worldwide and more than 2,600 shops that were closed [in phases].

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