On A High: The Largest Duty-free Retailer In The Subcontinent
Progressive Grocer|August 2017

Delhi Duty Free Services is on a roll. India’s biggest duty-free retailer achieved its highest monthly sales in the month of June. There were other windfalls as well. The company also recorded its highest daily sales yet, at over $600,000,besides registering over +50% growth in Shop & Collect sales, and highest ever sales in the beauty and liquor categories. Progressive Grocer spoke to Luke Gorringe, CEO, to get a sense of the company’s retailing strategy andwhat it does to make its cash register ring resoundingly month after month. He was joined by Abhijit Das, Head - Marketing, who offered insights into DDFS’s marketing game plan and its digital push.

Sanjay Kumar
On A High: The Largest Duty-free Retailer In The Subcontinent

The month of June went down with a bang for Delhi Duty Free Services Pvt. Ltd., which runs a cluster of duty-free stores at Delhi International Airport. The shops retail the best in categories spawning liquor, tobacco, confectionery, perfume & cosmetics, and luxury apparel and accessories. All the shops are located between Arrival and Departure junctions at Terminal 3 of Delhi International Airport. Duty-free shops at airports sell products without duty, i.e, without the local government sales tax added in. At duty-free shops, the size of the duty-free exemption varies depending on the country, but prices are often competitive in relation to what you’d find in a normal store. (The types of products that duty-free shops sell – liquor, cigarettes, perfume, etc – would otherwise attract high excise taxes bumping up their prices.)

For Delhi Duty Free, June proved to be a month in clover with sales climbing to giddying heights, and bringing cheer to its three stakeholders. The three partners in the joint venture are Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (DIAL), Yalorvin Ltd. – a subsidiary of Dublin-based Aer Rianta International cpt (ARI), a world-wide pioneer in operating duty-free shops globally, and GMR Airports Ltd, which owns and operates Delhi International Airport and Hyderabad International Airport. As an enterprise, Delhi Duty Free is India’s largest duty-free retail space and the Terminal it is located in is the sixth-largest single terminal building by floor area in the world.

Highest sales in June

This story is from the August 2017 edition of Progressive Grocer.

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This story is from the August 2017 edition of Progressive Grocer.

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