Dubai Duty Free

Dubai Duty Free recorded year-end-sales of
US$1.917 billion, representing a 7.36% increase
over the previous year.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
MARKET
Dubai Duty Free, which celebrated its 31st
anniversary in 2014, has grown into one of the
biggest travel retail operators in the world and
competes with airports both far from and within
the Arabian Gulf region as well as the low-duty
domestic retail environment in Dubai.
Dubai Duty Free expands on all fronts; it has
a wide range of merchandise and is a modern
success story. With strong marketing and a series of
innovative promotions to help drive business, Dubai
Duty Free maintains a high profile through a range
of sponsorships, which focus mainly on sporting
events. It has become a major player in Dubai’s
economy in becoming a word-class tourist, business
and shopping haven.
Business Industry Awards in September, the
operation scooped up the awards for “Retail
Company of the Year” and “UAE Company of the
Year”, while being named Finance Team of the
Year at the Middle East and North Africa CFO
Awards for its role in advancing the region’s finance
industry.
In October, Dubai Duty Free was awarded the
prestigious Frontier Award for “Airport Retailer of
the Year in Single Location”. This is the seventh time
that the company has won the Airport Retailer
Award since the awards began. The year ended on
a high note when Dubai Duty Free won the “Best
Duty Free Shops” award for the eighth time at the
Annual Global Traveler USA Awards.
Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman,
abroad. The award was presented in October by
the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins
at Aras an Uchtarain, the official
presidential residence in Dublin.
HISTORY
ACHIEVEMENTS
In 1985 Dubai Duty Free was honoured at the
inaugural Frontier Awards in Nice, France when the
new operation was presented with the first-ever
Airport Duty Free Operator of the Year award.
From that day onward, Dubai Duty Free continued
to reap numerous awards both here and abroad.
2014 was yet another busy year on the awards
front for Dubai Duty Free when it added 37
awards to its impressive number of local, regional
and international awards.
Last year, the company won the DFNI Global
Awards for “Best Airport Travel Retailer of the Year”
and “Best New Shop Opening” in April, followed by
its thirteenth Business Traveller Middle East Award
for “Best Duty Free Shopping” and its fourteenth
“Middle East Travel Retailer of the Year” prize at the
Duty Free News International Asia/Pacific Awards.
In June, the Superbrands Council in the UAE
honoured DDF with Superbrand status for the
eighth time while the EMEA Finance magazine’s
Achievement Awards in London honoured
DDF’s loan re-pricing submission as the “Best
Restructuring in the Middle East”. At the Gulf
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added a number of other prizes to his personal
accolades, including the CEO Middle East award
for “Outstanding Contribution to Business”.
McLoughlin was also presented with the “Irish
Presidential Distinguished Service Award”, in the
Business and Education category making him the
first Irish person living in the UAE to be recognised
by the Irish government for his outstanding
contribution to Irish business and communities
Dubai Duty Free began when the
Dubai Government commissioned
Irish airport operator, Aer Rianta,
to set up a duty free at Dubai
International Airport. In July 1983 a
ten-man team from Aer Rianta came
to Dubai. Their brief was “to develop
the best-ever duty free shops in the
industry” and on December 20th
1983, Dubai Duty Free opened for
business.
From the original Aer Rianta team
of ten, three stayed on to manage
the new operation. These were Colm
McLoughlin, now the Executive Vice
Chairman of Dubai Duty Free, George
Horan, the President of Dubai Duty
Free and John Sutcliffe who remained
in Dubai for seven years before going back to
work for Aer Rianta in Moscow and latterly in
Bahrain. Barely two years after it began operation,
Dubai Duty Free was named “Airport Duty Free
Operator of the Year” in 1985 at the Frontier
Awards in France.
In its opening year, Dubai Duty Free enjoyed an
impressive turnover of US$20 million and had risen
to US$1.917 billion in 2014, making it one of the
largest single duty free operations in the world.
Dubai’s remarkable growth shows no sign of
slowing down, and its airports are part of that
success story.
2015 promises to be another eventful year
featuring more record passenger numbers and
facility upgrades including the opening of 65,000 sq
mt Concourse D at Dubai International Airport’s
Terminal 1, which will boost DIA’s capacity to 90
million. Linked via a state-of-the-art elevated train,
Concourse D will be home to more than 100
airlines.
The building will feature several green initiatives
and is designed around a central atrium. The Dubai
Duty Free offer is within the central atrium, along
with the food and beverage outlets, making it a
vibrant and dynamic environment that is easily
accessible for all passengers.
Dubai Duty Free currently operates some 26,000
sq mt of retail space at DIA and a further 7,000 sq
mt with the opening of Concourse D, plus 2,500 sq
mt at Al Maktoum International. In the long term,
AMI-DWC has capacity for more than 220 million
passengers and ultimately, the retail operation will
cover some 80,000 sq mt.
Dubai International Airport was declared
the world’s busiest airport, serving 70.4 million
international passengers in 2014, up 6.1% from
2013, and with the Concourse D opening, 2015
will be even busier.
Dubai Duty Free’s Leisure Division which
includes The Irish Village, The Century Village and
the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, continue to
do well. Located on the same site in Garhoud, the
Jumeirah Creekside Hotel, which encompasses
the Aviation Club and Akaru Spa, is owned and
developed by Dubai Duty Free and is managed by
the Jumeirah Group.
devastating earthquake that hit the Caribbean
country five years ago. The operation also
sponsored some employees to join the Gulf for
Good “The High Atlas Challenge in Morocco” to
support the Education For All and to help build
the fifth boarding house for the girls in the High
Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The Foundation also
supported the Gulf for Good “The Great Asian
Cycling Challenge” (Vietnam to Cambodia) in
support of the Cristina Noble Foundation to help
build a kindergarten school in Vietnam.
In January 2015, the company donated Dh5
million to the UAE Compassion Campaign, which
raises funds to provide winter aid for one million
refugees and people in the Levant.
PROMOTION
Dubai Duty Free runs innovative and successful
promotions including the world famous Finest
Surprise Luxury Car draw, which began as a oneoff in December 1989 and continues to capture
the public’s imagination. To date, more than 1,580
Corporate Social Responsibility
In 2004, Dubai Duty Free launched the Dubai Duty
Free Foundation, a charitable body founded under
the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed
Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil
Aviation Authority and Chairman of Dubai Duty
Free, with Colm McLoughlin as Chairman of the
board. The Foundation, which aims to raise funds
for worthy causes with a particular emphasis on
causes that directly benefit children, has since
donated funds to several charities, both at home
and abroad.
Some of the highlights in 2014 were the opening
of the US$1.5 million Dubai Duty Free Sports
Complex on the campus of Lycée Jean Baptiste
Pointe du Sable in Haiti by the President of Haiti,
Michel Martelly. The project forms part of the
travel retail industry’s support for the Hand in
Hand for Haiti educational initiative following the
travellers from 72 different countries have now
driven away with a luxury car following their
purchase of a Dhs500 (US$139) ticket, which on
average, draws are held once a week.
The success of the Finest Surprise led to the
launch of the Millennium Millionaire promotion to
win US$1 million. Tickets are priced at Dhs1,000
(US$278) each and limited to 5,000 ticket holders.
To date, Dubai Duty Free has created over 190
winners of US$1 million, four of whom won twice!
Tickets are available at dedicated Dubai Duty
Free Finest Surprise counters across Terminals
1, 2 and 3, Al Maktoum International, the Craft
Shop at The Irish Village, Dubai Duty Free Desk
at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel or online at www.
dubaidutyfree.com.
The operation is committed to promoting Dubai
through a series of high level sporting events such
as the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships,
which continues to draw some of the top players
in the world including Novak Djokovic, Roger
Federer, Serena and Venus Williams, Caroline
Wozniacki, Anna Ivanovic and Petra Kavitova among
others. Held under the patronage of His Highness
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the
tournament carries a prize pot of $5 million and
was voted, in 2014, the ATP 500 Tournament of the
Year, a remarkable eleventh time in twelve years.
The Championships, which took place in February,
was won by Simona Halep from Romania in the
WTA week while Roger Federer won his seventh
Dubai ATP title.
Dubai Duty Free regularly flies the red and
yellow flag overseas, and each April and September
the operation sees the running of two raceday
weekends at Newbury Racecourse in England and
at Ascot Racecourse in August for the Dubai Duty
Free Shergar Cup, and at the Dubai Duty Free Irish
Derby in Curragh, Ireland each June.
Dubai Duty Free became a title sponsor of the
2015 Irish Open Hosted by The Rory Foundation
which took place at Royal County Down Golf
Club where the World Number One Rory McIlroy
played the role of tournament host on behalf of his
charitable foundation.
BRAND VALUES
Dubai Duty Free’s reputation has been built on five
business principles that were established from the
outset: to offer value for money, quality of products,
range of products, quality of service and ambience.
The operation’s reputation for success, style and
innovation suggests that it lives by these principles.
www.dubaidutyfree.com
Things you didn’t know about
Dubai Duty Free
PRODUCT
In 2014, Dubai Duty Free recorded almost 27
million sales transactions, an average of 73,960
per day, across Dubai International Airport and Al
Maktoum International in Dubai World Central.
Perfume is still the best-selling category, with sales
of $314 million contributing 17% of the operation’s
total sales.
DDF started the year strong, with first quarter
sales rising 10% year-on-year. That head start was
bookended with December 2014 once again being
the operation’s most successful month, driven by
DDF’s 31st anniversary celebrations.
Dubai Duty Free sold over 2.3 million bottles
of perfumes in 2014.
l Dubai Duty Free sold 2,478 kilograms of Gold
in 2014.
l Sales in 2014 reached US$1.917 billion,
representing a 7.36% increase over the
previous year.
l Dubai Duty Free recorded almost 27 million
sales transactions in 2014, which average at 73,960
sales transactions per day.
l