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DFA opens in Belize airportDFA opens in Belize airport
John Rimmer
19-Apr-2006
The operator, voted Americas Travel Retailer of the Year in the recent Raven Fox Americas Awards, is growing its Central American business with a new airport store in Belize
Duty Free Americas (DFA) will open a new store at Belize Philip Goldson International airport this week as the retailer expands its operations in Central and South America. The company also plans to open a store on the border between Panama and Costa Rica in the coming weeks.DFA co-owner Leon Falic told RavenFox.com: "Central and South America is an area we've been focusing on for some time and we've already experienced a lot of growth. It's a region that we know well and we'll grow there."
Meanwhile Falic expressed DFA's satisfaction at being voted Americas Travel Retailer of the Year at the recent Raven Fox Awards for Travel Retail Excellence in the Americas, presented during the Duty Free Show of the Americas in Fort Lauderdale last month. He noted that the recognition was especially satisfying given the reaction of some within the industry upon the Falic Group's entrance into travel-retail in 2001, when some queried the company's intentions given its involvement in the high street beauty discounting business through the Perfumania chain in the US.
"It's very exciting to get that recognition given where we come from and what people were saying when we arrived in duty-free," said Falic. "This award has been won not by us but by the people we work with: our employees and our suppliers. Sometimes you feel you're the best but it's nice for others to say it. There is always room for improvement and we'll be focusing on getting into the stores, talking to people and seeing what we can do better."
In addition to the main award, DFA was also named Americas Border/Downtown Retailer of the Year for its store at San Ysidro on the US/Mexico border. "Every time I go into that store I'm in awe," said Falic. "We can't take all the credit for it [the store was built by BAA-owned World Duty Free Americas] but thank God the store is ours. It has great offers, a great location and I always enjoy visiting it. We have other border stores that are very good if a little less grand than San Ysidro—at Hidalgo and Buffalo, for example—and it's a business in which we've invested a lot in store upgrades."
Falic said the border business in North America remained "challenging", partly owing to tough competition from local retailers and wholesalers.
See the next issue of DFNI, out on May 1, for more on DFA.
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