French travel-retail index reveals growth in second quarter

Gavin Lipsith

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The latest AFCOV index shows a general upward trend for the second quarter of 2005

French travel-retail organisation Association Française du Commerce du Voyageur's (AFCOV) latest index indicates a positive sales trend for the second quarter of 2005.

This year the index has been reworked to create separate categories for liquor, tobacco, beauty and "other products". The second quarter results show that liquor, beauty and "other categories" sales have been growing compared with 2004 levels. Tobacco sales continued the recovery triggered in March, although they could only match the performance yardstick achieved during 2004. In a comparison between April and June 2005 with the same period in 2004, sales of fragrances and cosmetics took pole position, with an increase of 10% in June.

The outlook for sales per passenger is also encouraging, the index reveals, as both the fragrances and cosmetics, and liquor categories finished above last year's performance. However, spend on tobacco and "other categories" are down on 2004.

The index measures sales in core categories across a broad range of French travel-retail outlets, including ferries, four key airports and Aelia's Eurotunnel outlets.