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Milan, 05 July 2012 - World Duty Free Group, the retail division of Autogrill (Milan: AGL IM), is starting up for the first time in Germany, having won a 10 year concession to operate duty-free stores in Düsseldorf International Airport, the 3rd in the country by passenger traffic after Frankfurt and Munich. In addition to expanding its presence in Europe, WDFG thus pushes up to 20 the number of countries worldwide where the Group’s retail division operates. The concession is expected to generate total revenues of €875m over the period 2013 to 2022.
“Winning the Düsseldorf tender is an endorsement of the competitiveness of our business model in proposing successful formulas, for the first time in the German market too, offering airport operators the know-how of a group with consolidated international experience,” said World Duty Free Group CEO José María Palencia.
From January 2013, the Company will operate six shops covering a total area of over 4,000 m2 in the airport’s three piers (A, B and C). WDFG will enjoy exclusive rights to sell certain product categories, such as fragrances and cosmetics, spirits and tobacco products. The commercial offering is based on specific knowledge of demand from German customers accumulated in Spain, in the tourist locations that are their habitual destinations.
With over 20 million passengers in 2011, Düsseldorf International Airport has seen a 5.5% increase in non-European traffic in the last four years, partly due to increasing numbers of Lufthansa/Star Alliance long-haul flights to and from the USA, Canada and China from Terminal A. The airport has around 70 airlines operating in it and serves one of the most densely populated parts of Germany, Nordrhein Westfalen, the region with the world’s 7th highest GDP. It is, in fact, where a very high percentage of German companies, totalling 100,000 national and foreign enterprises, are based. Düsseldorf is also one of the world’s most important trade fair locations, with over 50 events every year for various industries (mainly pleasure boats, fashion and media), attracting around 3 million visitors, over half of whom from abroad.
World Duty Free Group is one of the world’s leading operators in the airport travel retail segment and is active in 70 airports and 41 cultural sites in 20 countries. It has 322 points of sale, from London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, to Madrid and Barcelona, and Central and South America, and Mexico, Peru, Chile in particular.