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USA. World Duty Free Group has completed the acquisition of the remaining three concessions (housing 45 stores) from HMSHost’s travel retail division in North America. These include stores at Atlanta and Oakland airports, and in the Empire State Building.
As reported, World Duty Free Group (WDFG) reached an agreement with fellow Autogrill subsidiary HMSHost in North America in 2012, to acquire and operate the travel retail stores which the latter ran at the time.
The purchase price for the latest acquisitions is US$19 million and the term of the operation is five years-plus. The transfer, which follows authorisation granted by the airports, is effective from 28 February. The total price for the transfer of 100% of the concessions from HMSHost has amounted to US$124.3 million.
A WDFG statement said: “This acquisition is particularly relevant for WDF as it completes the transfer of the Travel Retail assets of HMSHost in North America, which started in the context of the partial and proportional demerger from Autogrill S.p.A. in favour of World Duty Free S.p.A. and is in line with the priorities marked by the group in the 2015-2017 optimisation budget approved by the Board of Directors on 15 January 2015.”
Following the transaction, WDFG will operate 33 stores at Atlanta Airport (totalling 3,205sq m), 12 stores at Oakland Airport (614sq m) and one store at the Empire State Building in New York (279sq m). The combined turnover of these three concessions in 2014 exceeded US$59 million. Total 2014 pro-forma revenue from all the concessions in the USA amounted to US$256.7 million.
With the transfer of these stores, World Duty Free Group now runs 249 stores spread across 31 airports and two cultural locations – Houston Space Centre and the Empire State Building.
The company noted: “The transfer will enable World Duty Free Group to keep introducing new retail concepts and further deploy its global beauty strategy in the US travel retail sector, while using the Empire State Building experience to export best practices to the souvenir category.”
