SPECIAL FEATURE: DUBAI DUTY FREE


Dubai Duty Free leads by example with impressive Covid-19 recovery blueprint


Against the odds, the world’s largest single-airport travel retailer was able to exceed US$2bn sales once again in 2019. Charlotte Turner notes that while 2020 has seen all global operators enter a serious tailspin, DDF is without question leading by example in its Covid-19 recovery.


D


ubai Duty Free (DDF) crossed the US$2bn mark in late December 2019


following a highly successful 36th anniversary campaign over three days, which offered a 25% discount across a range of merchandise. The final result reported by


the company was US$2.029 billion in sales, representing a fractional increase of +0.7% on the US$2.015 billion posted in 2018. Perfumes (15%) and liquor (15%) each accounted for the lion’s share of sales, with returns of US$307.85 million and US$304.24 million, respectively. 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, while 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 – and a total of 64.578 million units of merchandise were sold in the year. While the sales statistics make for


impressive reading, the achievements were hard fought as the company’s Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Colm McLoughlin and Chief Operating Officer Ramesh Cidambi revealed to TRBusiness on numerous occasions over the course of 2019.


Terminal 3 arrivals shop This year began on a celebratory note, with an exclusive Chinese- themed celebration at Dubai International Airport Terminal 3 (Concourse B and Concourse C - Control Tower). As part of the promotional


OCTOBER 2020


DDF shared its store modifications in a presentation during a TRConnect webinar in June.


activities, DDF successfully rolled out a range of Chinese New Year initiatives across all concourses and terminals at Dubai International and Al Maktoum International Airports. This was shortly followed by the


opening of a new Terminal 3 arrivals store at DXB. With a total retail space of 1,100sq m, it represented a significant increase on the previous retail area of 660sq m. DDF said at the opening that


the occasion marked ‘the next stage of its expansion plan at Dubai International Airport’, which was to include the second phase refurbishment of the two FoodPlus shops in Concourse B and continued enhancement of the retail offer within the fashion category. This was due to continue


in the second half of this year. However, by March retail developments ground to a halt as the Covid-19 pandemic reached its peak in Dubai in March. This forced DDF to close all of its stores on the 25th of that month. In a revealing video interview with


McLoughlin in April of this year, he told TRBusiness


that 111 members


of staff had tested positive for the virus. He said that the company was


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


TOP 10 OPERATORS 41


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


TRBusiness


making Dhs100,000/$27,000 each day through the sale of tickets for its ‘Finest Surprise’ and ‘Millennium Millionaire’ draws. McLoughlin said: “We’re taking about Dhs100,000


every day, but we should be taking Dhs20 million a day,” he stated. “But we’re living with it. All our


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