Bhatia Traders makes first foray into European travel retail at Limassol cruise port

CYPRUS. Bhatia Traders – an entity of United Arab Emirates-based House of ST Bhatia – will shortly open a travel retail store for passengers at a recently-inaugurated cruise terminal in Limassol under the Centrico Duty Free name. The move marks the company’s entry into the European market.

First sight: These are the first images of the new Centrico-branded store in Limassol (above). The modern interior (below) will be fully stocked in the coming fortnight.

Bhatia Traders, whose core business includes duty free operations, bonded warehousing and ‘Seamen’s Clubs’ across northern UAE seaports, was awarded a three-year licence commencing June 2018, according to port operator DP World Limassol. DPWL chose the company from a final round of five bidders following a tender.

Rupali Arora: “The shop will start operations in about two weeks.”

The House of ST Bhatia Vice President Rupali Arora told The Moodie Davitt Report: “The shop will start operations in about two weeks. We signed the contract with DP World in October 2018 but it took a while to sort out the licences and permissions required from the authorities to operate the duty shop. Now we are ready.”

Bhatia Traders operate a number of stores in UAE seaports and recently also started operations in terminal two of Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Airport in Tanzania, Africa.

The Limassol licence covers a single retail space of 80sq m plus a 65sq m service lounge. DPWL Commercial Manager Lazaros Charalambous told The Moodie Davitt Report: “This is a new cruise terminal inaugurated in May 2018. For 2019 we expect approximately 120,000 passengers and for 2020 we estimate that this number will increase given the positive trend for cruise (passengers) returning to the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Charalambous added: “At DPWL we believe that the in-port retail offer is important for cruise passengers but equally important in connecting the port with the local community. Consequently we are always look to further develop such opportunities.”

DP World’s impressive new cruise terminal in Limassol

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