CHINA. China Duty Free has been awarded a major retail contract at Shanghai Hongqiao high-speed railway station, following a hotly contested open tender.
The award, made on 16 August, covers nearly 6,000sq m of space in the departures zone and embraces the entire commercial zone except for the catering and news & books offers.
CDFG noted: “This bidding was won against other retail corporations on the basis of a half year’s effort and several rounds of intense competition.”
The retailer said that the victory extends its retail operations into the new and important channel of high-speed railway stations, which are booming in China. The success marks the beginning of a transformation of the company’s business both in terms of scale and multiplicity of channels to a “large-sized and comprehensive” model, it added.
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This striking image of Shanghai Hongqiao high-speed railway station’s departures floor underlines the sheer scale of the operation |
The agreement, noted CDFG, is a big boost for the company’s duty paid business and lays the foundation to extend this channel significantly.
CDFG is currently launching an invitation to brands to participate in the station offer. The stores are expected to open before the end of the year.
Shanghai Hongqiao Station, governed by the Shanghai Railway Bureau and opened in July 2010, acts as the intersection for the Shanghai-Hangzhou, Shanghai-Nanjing and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railways. It is the most important railway hub and the largest station for passenger transportation in East China.
CDFG said that the station’s consumer base represents “the strongest purchasing power in China”, adding: “It is believed that “˜the age of high-speed railway” for China’s domestic travellers is around the corner”.
CDFG plans to examine the consumer spending characteristics of the high-speed railway retail market in order to extend its business in this fast-evolving channel. It will focus primarily on large stations in first- and second-tier cities as it builds its operation and expertise.
The company concluded: “High speed railway is a brand new way of travel. Compared with going by plane, traveling by high speed railway is characterised by punctuality, security and by being economical.
“The new mode of travel is favoured by more and more middle-income people. It is predicted by the Ministry of Railway of China that the high-speed railway network will handle 308 million passengers in 2012, amounting to +50% of the passenger flow of the Chinese civil aviation market.
“We believe that such a huge travel retail market is certain to have great potential.”
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