UAE. Buoyed by a stellar final week’s trading at Dubai International Airport (DXB), Dubai Duty Free surpassed its previous all-time annual sales high by early this morning, 31 December, the final day of 2024.
“We crossed last year’s number of AED7.885 billion (US$2.160 billion) just after 2am this morning,” a delighted Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi told The Moodie Davitt Report at 04.50 Dubai time.
“I think we will finish the year close to AED7.9 billion (US$2.164 billion),” he said, speaking just before boarding a plane from Delhi to Dubai (see latest updates in panel below as the AED7.9 billion mark was reached at 9pm Dubai time).
Cidambi said a particularly impressive trading performance in December had spurred the record results.
“We have had a fantastic December,” he commented. “We reached AED807.6 million in December 2023 – a record month in the history of the organisation. So depending on what happens during the rest of the day, I think we’ll finish around AED820 million (US$224.7 million) for this December.”
What makes the result even more impressive is that the historically vital China spend was down -15% year-on-year in December, typifying the nationality’s almost universally soft travel retail consumption globally in 2024.
Update: Higher and higherSpeaking again to The Moodie Davitt Report via an inflight wifi connection en route from Delhi to Dubai on Emirates (EK) 511 – the first interview to be conducted with a travel retail executive in the sky – Ramesh Cidambi commented at 10.43 UAE time: “We are at AED7.891 million as I text! “I think you can safely say we expect to touch AED7.9 billion (US$2.16 billion for the full year).” Will the Dubai Duty Free Managing Director add to the record 2024 tally on his arrival at DXB? Watch this space. Later… (exclusive photos)Well, of course he will, as our photographic evidence below shows Ramesh Cidambi leading from the front on a great day for Dubai Duty Free.  
Latest update: “AED 7.9 billion done as of 9pm Dubai time.” – Ramesh Cidambi |
Cidambi singled out confectionery’s outstanding performance as pivotal to the year-end surge, with three newly introduced locally themed brands – Locali, I Love Dubai and Fix – turning in star results (see full details below). Strong passenger traffic growth also played an integral role.
“The pax numbers are very strong this month, so that helped us,” he observed. “We have averaged more than 270,000 passengers a day and while the airport will release its official figures next month we think the numbers are easily more than +5% over last year.
Sweet success for Dubai chocolate brands
“Confectionery was the real standout,” Cidami observed. “Sales in the category were up nearly AED14 million (US$3.84 million) compared to last December. In percentage terms that’s around +30%. And nearly all that AED14 million has come from the three Dubai chocolate brands, Locali, I Love Dubai and Fix.
“These three brands didn’t exist last year – we introduced them in October, November and December. So in December, the three of them collectively added about AED14 million in sales.”
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The broader beauty category, led by perfumes, also fared well, with sales rising +6.5% year-on-year so far in December. While fashion and luxury brands have generally struggled this year, Cidambi said he was delighted with Cartier’s performance – a standout +9% year-on-year growth in December. Tobacco (up +14% year-on-year) also performed strongly.
Concourse B fared best of the big DXB concourses in December, with sales up +8% year-on-year, while European flights in general and the UK (up +12.4%) in particular led the way in terms of spending.
Calendar phasing also played a role in the December showing. Although facing an unfavourable comparison to December 2023 in terms of the number of weekend days (Friday-Sunday inclusive) in the month, the final run-up to Christmas was better with the key trading days of 20-22 December falling across those three weekend days.
“The weekend before Christmas, we had very strong business, including the AED59.9 million on 20 December [Dubai Duty Free’s 41st anniversary, when sales surged +11% year-on-year, buoyed by the now traditional -25% discount on a wide range of merchandise over the 24-hour shopping period -Ed].”
Grand finale to the year
While December stands as a record month in Dubai Duty Free’s 41-year history, it was the last week of 2024 that really made the difference, Cidambi explained.
“If you take the first to the 24th of December, we were flat compared to last year, despite having record anniversary sales. But from the 25th of December to the 30th our business was up nearly +9% over 2023.
“This was much stronger than I expected, even with a worse weekend [phasing] situation. The staff pushed really hard from Christmas to New Year’s Eve, and that +9% increase in sales – which was about AED2 million (US$545,000) per day more than last year – is what got us over the line in terms of beating the previous record.
“So I am very, very happy about that. The staff really gave it another final push after working extremely hard through December until the anniversary weekend.
“The whole team – everybody in the front office and back office – worked very hard over the last six months. Despite all the renovations and refurbishments that took place, I’m very happy with the way the year has turned out.” ✈
