January 6 2020  |  Retailers

Dubai Duty Free annual sales soar to US$2.029B

By Hibah Noor

The top five selling categories of the year included Perfumes, followed by Liquor, Cosmetics, Tobacco and Electronics; sales of Perfumes, which rose by 2% over 2018, reached US$307.85M

With the operation announcing record annual sales of US$2.029B for 2019, the New Year began on a high note for Dubai Duty Free.

The retailer celebrated its 36th anniversary on December 20 with a 25% discount on a range of products, which resulted in a huge surge of sales with 190,208 transactions amounting to US$30.59M in the 24-hour period. Six days later, Dubai Duty Free went on to cross the US$2B milestone.

Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Dubai Duty Free, shares “Overall, it has been a fantastic year for the operation and I would like to thank H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of Dubai Duty Free, for his ongoing support. I also join His Highness in thanking our great team of staff, our suppliers and of course our customers, for their contribution to our growth and success.”

In 2019, the operation recorded more than 24.284 million sales transactions, which is an average of 66,500 per day. A total of 64.578+ million units of merchandise were sold.

The top five selling categories of the year included Perfumes, followed by Liquor, Cosmetics, Tobacco and Electronics. Sales of Perfumes, which rose by 2% over 2018, reached US$307.85M and accounted for 15% of the total annual sales.

Accounting for 15% of total revenue, Liquor recorded sales of US$304.24M.

Accounting for 11% of total revenue, Cosmetics recorded sales of US$232.53M.

Accounting for 11% of total revenue, Tobacco recorded sales of US$223.88M.

Meanwhile, sales in Departures across the operation reached US$1.808B and represented 89% of total annual sales, while Arrivals with US$181.98 million, represented 9% of total annual sales.

In addition to its record annual sales, McLoughlin comments on Dubai Duty Free’s multiple projects on the go: “We have continued to develop our retail offer in all the terminals and including the opening of a Chanel boutique, a Maison Christian Dior shop and a Gucci boutique. We are also looking forward to the opening of the new 1,100-sqm retail space in Terminal 3 Arrivals this month. The new arrivals shop is much more visible to passengers in the baggage area and has a fantastic Liquor retail offer.In addition, we will continue the second phase of the refurbishment of the two FoodPlus shops in Concourse B and Dubai Duty Free will continue to enhance its retail offer within the Fashion category in the second half of the year.”

“We continue to develop our DDF Leisure business - the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel continues to do well and The Irish Village in Garhoud celebrated its 23rd birthday in October last year. We opened the third Irish Village in Dubai Studio One Hotel and we will be opening a fourth Irish Village at the EXPO grounds this October,” he added.

Looking ahead, Dubai Duty Free will continue to develop its DDF Leisure business and maintain its events & promotional calendar, which includes the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships to be held February 17 – 29 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.

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