AMERICAS LEADING OPERATORS: DFA


Tocumen tender victory ‘the pinnacle’, says DFA’s Leon Falic


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After capturing two lots in the hotly contested Panama Tocumen International Airport Terminal One tender last year, Duty Free Americas President Leon Falic tells Andrew Pentol why these key contract gains were a personal and professional highlight.


L


ast year, Duty Free Americas (DFA) had some ‘important wins’ in places such as El


Salvador and even Haifa, which it considers one for the future. However, the obvious highlight was the triumph in Panama. In August, DFA won two of


the three 10-year concessions at Panama Tocumen International Airport Terminal One. With its UETA Latin America store division headquartered in Panama, which is also coincidently the home of DFA President Leon Falic, it is easy to see why these concession gains mean so much. As reported, the airport issued


and running. In August, the retailer revealed


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tenders for two 700sq m duty free areas last year. DFA claimed packages one and two, the prime locations in the terminal. These cover an array of categories including fragrances and cosmetics, skincare, liquor, tobacco, sunglasses and watches. Putting sentiment to one side,


the Panama Tocumen project made perfect sense from a business perspective, with DFA set to command 85% of total sales at the airport once everything is up


MARCH 2018


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to TRBusiness it would give $56m upfront to the airport having secured the two packages – each block is worth $28m and DFA will pay $2.4m per month in concession fees. Looking back on a challenging year, Falic suggests 2017 was not as bad as it could have been. He tells TRBusiness: “We had some important wins which we are now building on. For me, the win in Panama was the highlight from a personal and business standpoint. “We would not have been involved


if it did not represent good business, but there is definitely a personal feeling of accomplishment. We have been waiting for this a long time and happy to be part of it.”


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Operational target With part of the space set to be operational by the end of the month or beginning of April (building work is taking place and everything should be up and running by the end of next month) Falic says DFA will produce something different to what Panama has seen before.


Leon Falic, President, DFA


specific concepts which will capture everyone’s imagination. It is one of those where you have the passenger flow and passenger mix and just have to cater to them. We feel they haven’t been catered to well up to now. This is going to be a game- changer for us.” Last year (January to December)


“We had some important wins which we are now building on. For me, the win in Panama was the highlight from a personal and business standpoint.”


he enthuses. “We are going to make some beautiful stores and give customers an offering they haven’t had. “The idea is to implement


The new stores are not going to


be walkthroughs and will be located in existing spaces where everything has been knocked down and rebuilt from scratch. “It’s going to be transformational,”


Above: A DFA store at Miami International Airport.


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