Dubai Duty Free on Thursday announced a 10 percent increase in sales for the first half of the year with turnover reaching AED3.67 billion ($1 billion).
The first half figures place the airport retailer well on track to reach $2 billion sales by year-end.
Liquor, perfumes and tobacco retained the top three category positions with liquor showing a 7 percent increase year to date amounting to AED553.14 million.
Tobacco sales increased by 36 percent over last year while other notable increases in sales were seen in cosmetics (27 percent) and electronics (25 percent).
For the first six months, Dubai Duty Free recorded 12,769,905 individual sales transactions with average daily sales of AED20.28 million.
Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free said: “2018 has been a fantastic year for Dubai Duty Free so far. We have continuously grown our business and are happy to see a double digit increase for the first half. With new retail areas now operational and ongoing retail developments coming on stream at both Dubai International and Al Maktoum International, we are confident that we will reach the $2 billion mark at the end of December.”
Recruitment at Dubai Duty Free continued in the second quarter of 2018 bringing the level of employees to 6,070.
