Dufry sales grow by 70% in the first quarter

Emily Pacey

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Dufry Group has revealed its first-quarter results and outlined its involvement in recent tenders

Dufry Group has announced that its sales grew by 70% in the first quarter of 2007 to reach SFr416.9m ($344.5m). The group’s EBITDA margin increased by 3% to reach 10% in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2006. Organic growth also reached 10%, while 5% of sales growth came from new acquisitions and projects plus financial exchange rate variations.

In a conference call earlier today (May 31), Dufry CEO Julián Díaz told participants that all regions had achieved double-digit growth, with Africa posting growth of 25%, while Eurasia and Asia recorded growth of 22% and Europe of 13%. North America and Caribbean grew by 42%, of which 32% was due to the acquisition of the Puerto Rico operation at the end of 2006. “In 2007 our target is to maintain double-digit organic growth,” said Díaz.

The gross profit margin increased to 51.7% compared with 49.6% in the same period last year. The company attributed this growth to improved sales mix and supplier conditions.

Díaz also explained why the company did not bid in the Singapore Changi airport terminal three fragrances and cosmetics tender: “Dufry will not participate in tenders that cannot generate the financial parameters that we want," he said. "We do not want to get involved in big tenders when the contracts are just three years long.”

Díaz continued: “Regarding new opportunities in 2007, it is important to say that we don’t yet have any information about the airport tender in Spain, but this should happen in the next couple of months. Spain remains an important opportunity for us. Also, we are now studying opportunities in South Korea. We are not certain that we will enter this market, but we are considering it.” Of the Saudi Arabia triple airport contract recently won by Aldeasa, he said: “We didn’t win in Saudi Arabia – it was a good opportunity but we couldn’t make it happen, and we will never know the exact reason for this.”

Dufry added about 7,000sq m (75,320sq ft) of retail space to its global operations in the first quarter of 2007, and now operates at 70 international airports worldwide.