Dubai: In a year that posed many challenges for the global airport retail sector, Dubai Duty Free bucked the trend by announcing record annual sales of Dh4.1 billion in 2009, a 3.76 per cent increase over the previous year.
Commenting on the annual sales, Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of Emirates Airline and Group, 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 was a record month with sales reaching a new monthly high of Dh441 million, a 9 per cent increase over December 2008.
Special discount
Meanwhile on December 20, the day in which Dubai Duty Free celebrated its 26th anniversary with a special discount offer, daily sales reached Dh62.5 million.
Commenting on the conclusion of a memorable year, 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 more than 20.3 million sales with an average of 55,800 sales each day.
Category wise, perfumes continued to be the No 1 category with sales topping Dh567 million, up 2 per cent on the previous year and representing 14 per cent of sales at Dubai Duty Free.
Beverages and gold remained the No 2 and No 3 categories respectively.
The tobacco category increased by 15 per cent to become the No 4 selling category and confectionary sales rose by 11 per cent to assume the No 5 position.
Other steep increases took place in the gifts from Dubai category which rose by 17 per cent while sunglasses rose by 19 per cent and precious jewellery by 20 per cent.
Continuing with the fashion theme, ladies fashion saw an increase of 36 per cent in 2009, which was no doubt attributed to the extended fashion offer conducted following the opening of Emirates Terminal 3 in late 2008.
Retail
The year 2009 was also that in which Dubai Duty Free was announced as the biggest single airport retail operation in the world based on sales analysis issued by Generation Research.
The announcement, which was made in June 2009, places Dubai Duty Free just ahead of sales at London's Heathrow and Seoul's Incheon airports for the first time.
