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MARKETDubai 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.

ACHIEVEMENTSIn 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

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,

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

Things you didn’t know aboutDubai Duty Free

l Dubai Duty Free sold over 2.3 million bottlesof perfumes in 2014.l Dubai Duty Free sold 2,478 kilograms of Goldin 2014.l Sales in 2014 reached US$1.917 billion, representing a 7.36% increase over theprevious year. l Dubai Duty Free recorded almost 27 million sales transactions in 2014, which average at 73,960 sales transactions per day.

abroad. The award was presented in October by the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins at Aras an Uchtarain, the official presidential residence in Dublin.

HISTORYDubai 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.

PRODUCTIn 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 recorded year-end-sales of US$1.917 billion, representing a 7.36% increase over the previous year.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTSDubai’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. Corporate Social ResponsibilityIn 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

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.

PROMOTIONDubai Duty Free runs innovative and successful promotions including the world famous Finest Surprise Luxury Car draw, which began as a one-off in December 1989 and continues to capture the public’s imagination. To date, more than 1,580

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 VALUESDubai 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