Dubai Duty Free sales hit US$1.53 billion in first ten months of 2014

UAE. Dubai Duty Free has reported sales of US$1.53 billion for the first ten months of 2014 – as the world’s leading travel retailer at a single location pushes towards annual turnover of US$1.9 billion.

The fragrances category, which accounts for 16% of total revenue at Dubai Duty Free, retained its position as the largest category as sales rose to US$251 million in the period; this was followed by liquor and gold.

Other notable increases in sales came in cosmetics and handbags & small leathergoods, which showed a +21% and +54% increase respectively over last year’s figures.

Fragrances remain the best-selling product category at Dubai Duty Free, with US$251 million in sales in the ten-month period
Gold remained one of the top three categories in the first ten months

Departures sales reached US$1.34 billion, accounting for 88% of total revenue, while Arrivals sales showed a 10% contribution to reach US$154 million.

Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman Colm McLoughlin said: “We have had a very good start to the year and are very much on track for our sales forecast of US$1.9 billion. Terminal 3 continues to be the biggest in terms of accumulative sales and accounts for 64% of our total turnover.

“The expansion and upgrade of Terminal 2 (T2) last year has provided us with an opportunity to extend our product range and boost sales in T2, which accounts for 8% of our total revenue and is growing.”

Concourse D, where Dubai Duty Free will open over 7,000sq m of space in 2015

Dubai Duty Free has continued to enhance its retail operation in 2014 with the refurbishment in Concourse C (Terminal 1). Plans are also in place for the opening of Concourse D in early 2015, where the retailer will manage 7,000sq m of space. This new concourse will cover some 65,000sq m and will be home to the 100 airlines that currently operate from Terminal 1, Concourse C.

*Also on this page (see below) we feature a video interview – part of our new Trinity Conversations series – with Dubai Duty Free President George Horan. He talks about the prospects for the new Concourse D, about Concourse performance since it opened last year and about the long-term future for travel retail in Dubai.

Food & Beverage The Magazine eZine