SOUTH KOREA. Shinsegae Duty Free’s July opening of a downtown duty free store in Seoul’s Gangnam area, plus new concessions at Incheon International Airport Terminal 1, generated a +113.9% year-on-year revenue boost to KRW579 billion (US$512.6 million). However, the retailer posted an operating loss of KRW3.2 billion (US$2.8 million) due mainly to heavy start-up costs. That compares with an operating profit of KRW9.7 billion (US$8.6 million) in the same quarter last year.
The fast-growing travel retailer, now South Korea’s third most powerful player, spent KRW2.3 billion (US$2 million) in one-off opening costs at Gangnam and Incheon T1. Shinsegae said that it expects its duty free operations to turn a profit in the current fourth quarter.
Shinsegae saw groupwide third-quarter sales rise by +38% to a record KRW 1.36 trillion (US$1.2 billion) versus the same period in 2017, but net profit, affected by the duty free investment costs, fell by -10.1% to KRW38 billion (US$33.6 million)
