Dubai Duty Free (DDF) has been in operation for 21 years.
It celebrated its 21st anniversary on December 20 last year signaling a new milestone for the award- winning retail operation with daily sales reaching Dh11.3 million ($3.1 million). The anniversary day sales surpassed the previous daily record of Dh7.3 million set just days before the anniversary date.
Commenting on the record figures, Colm McLoughlin, managing director of DDF, said: “We are delighted with the new daily sales record and the record number of sales transactions, which totaled over 45,000. This is a great way to mark the closing of an incredible year, which will see DDF reach sales Dh1.8 billion.”
On the anniversary day, customers were offered a 21 per cent discount on a wide range of products and this had the desired effect of setting sales soaring throughout the 24 hours. “The offer of 21 per cent was a way of saying thank you to our customers,” added McLoughlin.
The highest grossing category on the anniversary day was watches and clocks with sales reaching Dh2.5 million, which is 37 per cent up on the same day the previous year. In second place were perfumes, which reached Dh1.8 million, 54 per cent above the previous year.
The 21st anniversary celebrations included the opening of the new fashion area in DDF at Sheikh Rashid Terminal, which was officially inaugurated by HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Maktoum, president of Dubai Civil Aviation. Sales in the men’s fashion category rose by 37 per cent over last year and were up by 62 per cent in the women’s fashion category.
The statistics behind the record figures highlight the sheer volume of business handled by the operation, which in 2004 received the Frontier ‘Airport Retailer of the Year’ award for an unprecedented fourth time. Colm McLoughlin was also presented with a Lifetime Acheivement Award, only the second-ever presented in Frontier’s 20-year history. The first award was presented in 1997 to the founder of the duty free industry, Dr Brendan O’Regan to mark the 50th anniversary of Shannon Duty Free.
But that’s not all. Dubai Duty Free surpassed all records to cross $500 million in sales during 2004. The milestone performance represents a 32 per cent increase over last year and underlines the operation’s global status among the top three airport retailers in the world.