Dubai Duty Free posts $2.03b in 2019

Dubai: Dubai Duty Free had sales of Dh7.41 billion ($2.02 billion) in 2019, helped by a surge seen during its anniversary celebrations. The comparable number for 2018 was Dh7.3 billion ($1.99 billion).

Customers were offered a 25 per cent discount on a range of merchandise when the airport retailer marked 36th year of operations on December 20. That day, there were 190,208 transactions recorded amounted to Dh111.65 million.

“It was clear that a remarkable year was coming to a close in December when the retailer crossed the $2 billion milestone on December 26,” Dubai Duty Free said.

In 2019, it recorded over 24.3 million sales transactions, while a total of over 64.578 million units of merchandise were sold. The top five selling categories were perfumes followed by liquor, cosmetics, tobacco and electronics. The sale of perfumes, which rose by 2 per cent over 2018, reached Dh1.12 billion and accounted for 15 per cent of the overall.

Sales in the retailer’s Departures section touched Dh6.6 billion and represented 89 per cent of total annual sales, while Arrivals with Dh 664.23 million represented 9 per cent.

“We have continued to develop our retail offer in all the terminals and that included the opening of a Chanel boutique, a Maison Christian Dior shop and a Gucci boutique,” said Dubai Duty Free’s Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO Colm McLoughlin. “We are also looking forward to the opening of the new 1,100 square metre retail space in Terminal 3 Arrivals this month.”