Dufry reports turnover growth of nearly 20%

Print Article E-Mail Article

The company said its turnover in the first nine months of 2009 was up by 19.5% to $1.75bn

Travel retailer Dufry has reported growth of 19.5% in turnover in the first nine months of this year to CHF 1.76bn ($1.75bn) while EBITDA (before other operational result) grew to CHF220.1m ($219.1m) from CHF202.2m ($201.3m) in the previous corresponding period. EBITDA margin for nine months to September 30 was 12.5%.

The company said the lower number of international passengers as well as some specific effects continued to persist in the third quarter of 2009, although “first signs of improvement have been evident since the last weeks of September”. Dufry added that the negative organic growth in the first half of the year improved for the first nine months and was compensated by new concessions and the consolidation of Hudson Group, which contributed 34.3%, as well as a positive foreign exchange effect of 0.9%.

Dufry also said that the impact of Alitalia’s flight re-allocation in 2008 started to subside and Italy’s performance “has become aligned with the market development”. The company’s business in Africa, Eurasia and North America, including Hudson Group, was “in line with” previous quarters and the performance began improving in September in all these regions.

The company reported that its Caribbean and Central America business remained “subdued” due to falling spend in jewellery and watches, as well as the effects of the H1N1 virus epidemic in Mexico. The swine flu also impacted on Dufry’s South America operations in July and August after outbreaks in Argentina and Chile scared away Brazilian travellers.

Gross profit margin increased to 55.8% in the first nine months of 2009, 1.6% higher than the 54.2% in the corresponding period of 2008, as a consequence of improvements implemented in previous periods and the “synergies realised in Hudson Group”.

Dufry Group CEO Julian Diaz said: “Despite the economic crisis, we have demonstrated in the past 12 months that we can navigate successfully through challenging times based on our strategy for 2009 to focus on cash generation and reduction of net debt…The whole team has made a big effort to reduce the costs and to boost the cash generation and I would like to thank them for their strong performance.

“In September and October, our organic performance has started to improve and also the traffic forecasts have turned positive, even for the near future,” he added. “Assuming that this trend continues, this would signal the beginning of the recovery in our industry. As mentioned earlier, we continue with our strategy to capture growth opportunities, be it organic or external, based on our financial flexibility. In this context, the transactions that we concluded recently, as well as the additional retail space that we have added during 2009 through new concessions and expansions, illustrate that there are attractive opportunities for Dufry in the market.”