AUSTRALIA. Lotte Duty Free will close its downtown Sydney store on 30 November, a drastic reflection of the testing conditions facing the channel in Australia and the wider Asia Pacific region.
The Korean travel retailer announced the last day for online orders is 22 November with final click & collection pick-up on 25 November.
Appointed in late 2024, incoming Lotte Duty Free CEO Kim Dong-ha was charged with addressing the Korean travel retail giant’s structure and financial viability, following heavy losses abroad and big challenges at home.
When it opened the Sydney store, Lotte Duty Free promised “a duty-free shopper experience like no other” at the gleaming new 3,000sq m three-level store on the corner of Pitt Street and Market Street – the heart of the city’s retail precinct within the Central Business District.
That was then, this is now
Lotte Duty Free then described the downtown Sydney store as a “stepping-stone” to becoming Australia’s largest duty-free retailer, dubbing the opening “a restarting of our global business and a full-scale entry into the Oceania duty-free market”.
The retailer initially targeted sales of KRW1 trillion (at the time US$790.3 million) over the first ten years of operation. The company said the pre-COVID Australian duty free market was worth KRW1 trillion, noting that competition among global retailers including itself, Dufry, DFS Group and Heinemann is “fierce”.
It certainly was (DFS subsequently closed its Sydney store on 10 September 2025, marking the end of over 35 years of operation in The Rocks and a complete exit from the Oceania market while Lotte Duty Free shut down its Melbourne equivalent in Augusst 25) but the intensity of competition was just one factor in the travails that Lotte Duty Free would face.
For a start, the pre-COVID and post-COVID trading environments transpired to be two very different beasts. Travel retail’s much-touted resilience and ability to rebound from crisis was tested to the limit as the all-important Chinese spend and tour group business softened alarmingly. Online and local market competition also ramped up dramatically.
The touted KRW1 trillion quickly turned into a pipedream and the store began increasingly to shape as a white elephant, a loss-making burden piled on top of Lotte Duty Free’s other struggles at home and abroad.
Now the die is cast, the doors set to be closed not only on the physical store but on a downtown duty-free channel that has been a fundamental (and once thriving) element of the Australian travel retail sector for decades. ✈
Downtown duty free’s demiseGlobal downtown duty-free closures globally over the past decade have included: 2016WalkerHill Duty Free (SK Networks), Seoul, South Korea, May 2019EVERRICH Duty Free Minquan East Road, Taipei, Taiwan Hanwha Galleria Duty Free, Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea, September 2020Doota Duty Free (Doosan Corp), Seoul, South Korea, April SM Duty Free – Seoul, South Korea, September Entas (Kyung Bok Kung) Paradise Complex, Yeongjong Island, Incheon, November 2021Shinsegae Duty Free, Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea, July 2022Lotte Duty Free COEX, Seoul, South Korea, September 2023T Galleria by DFS, Scotts Road, Singapore 2024La Samaritaine, Paris, France – remains open but divested by DFS to majority stakeholder LVMH Duty Zero by CDF, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong 2025 Shinsegae Duty Free Busan, South Korea, January DFS Saipan downtown and airport stores, April DFS Group T Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Venice, Italy, April DFS Macau M8, May Hyundai Duty Free Dongdaemun, Seoul, South Korea store, July Duty Zero by CDF, Central, Hong Kong DFS Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui East (Chinachem), August DFS downtown stores in Sydney, Auckland and Queenstown – marking the retailer’s exit from Oceania,September Lotte Duty Free, Melbourne, Australia, August King Power downtown duty-free shops in Thailand – Srivaree and Mahanakhon in Bangkok and Pattaya – closed on a phased basis from September. Times DF, Haikou – The main store run by the Shenzhen Duty Free/DFS partnership closed though the liquor boutiques (Shenzhen Duty Free only) remained open until May 2026 2026DFS Waikiki, Hawaii, USA, January DFS Tumon Bay, Guam, March Times DF, Haikou – The liquor boutiques run by Shenzhen Duty Free, May Lotte Duty Free Sydney, Australia, closing soon Source: ©Moodie Davitt Business Intelligence Service; List is not exhaustive Also read: Guest editorial – The past, present and future of the South Korean duty-free industry |
