Dubai Duty Free bucks trends with record retail sales figures

Commenting on the annual sales, H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President Dubai Department of Civil Aviation and Chairman of Dubai Duty Free said: “Dubai Duty Free, like most businesses, felt the impact of the global recession particularly in the early part of the year. However, I am delighted that the operation has successfully turned sales around in the second half and that a new annual record has been achieved. Congratulations to the management and staff on their success in 2009.”

December itself was a record month with sales reaching a new monthly high of Dhs441 million (US$122 million), which represents a 9% increase over December 2008. Meanwhile on December 20th, the day in which Dubai Duty Free celebrated its 26th Anniversary with a special discount offer, daily sales reached Dhs62.5 million (US$17.3 million).

Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free said: “Without doubt, 2009 will be remembered as a year of challenges. I am pleased that as a retail operation we reacted quickly to those challenges and worked closely with our suppliers and staff on a number of initiatives.

In 2009, Dubai Duty Free recorded over 20.3 million sales transactions with an average of 55,800 sales transactions per day.

Perfumes continued to be the No. 1 category with sales topping Dhs567 million (US$157 million) up 2% on the previous year and representing 14% of total sales at Dubai Duty Free. Liquor and Gold remained as the No. 2 and No. 3 category respectively. The Tobacco category increased by 15% to become the No. 4 selling category and Confectionary sales rose by 11% to take the No. 5 position.

Other steep increases were seen in the Gifts from Dubai category which rose by 17% while Sunglasses rose by 19% and Jewellery by 20%. Continuing with the Fashion theme, Ladies Fashion saw an increase of 36%.  

The retailer also enjoyed a number of successes on the global scene. It was named as the biggest single airport retail operation in the world based on sales analysis issued by Generation Research ahead of sales at London Heathrow and Seoul Incheon Airports for the first time.

Readers of the US’ Global Traveler magazine voted Dubai Duty Free as the “Best for Duty Free Shops”. In May, the operation won two awards: the “Middle East Travel Retailer of the Year” award at the DFNI-Asia Pacific awards in Singapore and the “Best Duty Free Shopping” award at the Business Traveler M.E. Awards in Dubai.

In June, Dubai Duty Free was named ‘Best Duty Free Shopping’ in the world in the 2009 World Airport survey conducted by Skytrax. The world-famous survey involved interviews with 8.6 million passengers at 196 airports. In October, Dubai Duty Free won the Frontier Award for “Best Marketing Campaign by a Retailer” in Cannes and at the close of the year, Dubai Duty Free was once again honoured by a US-based magazine as Business Traveler US presented the “Best Duty Free Shopping” trophy to the operation at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

On a personal level, Dubai Duty Free’s Managing Director, Colm McLoughlin, received four top awards including the “Lifetime Achievement in the Middle East Event Industry” award which recognized his role in promoting the UAE through events. In October, Mr. McLoughlin received the prestigious “Businessman of the Year” award at the annual Middle East Business Achievement Awards held to coincide with the Leaders in Dubai Business Forum. Meanwhile in December, Mr. McLoughlin was named ‘Businessman of the Year” in the Aviation Business Awards. The final award of the year was presented by British Gold Olympic medalist, Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE, who presented the “Lifetime Services to the Arabian Sponsorship Industry” award to Mr. McLoughlin at the inaugural Arabian Sponsorship Awards held in Abu Dhabi.