Dufry saw a strong recovery in its business last year having been hit hard by the travel restrictions during the pandemic.
A rebound in travel, predominantly in the Western hemisphere, drove turnover at the world’s largest duty-free retailer up 53.2% to CHF3.92bn (€3.77bn). Aided by cost savings, Dufry recorded an adjusted operating profit of CHF374.9m (€361.02m) compared to a CHF1.56bn (€1.50bn) loss the year before.
Dufry stated that it was re-opening its retail businesses gradually, following single-location productivity scenarios. At the end of December, around 1,900 shops globally were open, representing around 88% of its sales capacity compared to full-year 2019. At the end of March, Dufry expects to operate more than 1,970 shops, representing above 90% of sales capacity.
Julián Díaz, CEO of Dufry Group, commented: “In an environment of gradual recovery for the industry and with travel resuming at different speeds in individual countries and regions, Dufry has continued to flexibly adapt its ways of working to the ever-changing requirements. Supported by the resilient willingness of our customers to travel and their ongoing propensity to visit our stores, our turnover saw a reassuring acceleration through the course of the year.
“We see encouraging signs for the ongoing recovery of the industry and our business performance as vaccination levels increase, passenger traffic accelerates, and our sales improve – also supported by higher spend-per-passenger compared to before the pandemic. The overall trends to ease cross-country and domestic air travel continued and were gradually extended.”
