Hamila enjoys strong start to 2005

Tina Milton

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Several new inflight contracts and growing passenger numbers have lifted the Tunisian retailer

Hamila Duty Free has enjoyed a sales increase of 20% for the year to date, which CEO Tarek Hamila told RavenFox.com was driven by a 15% increase in passenger numbers and several new inflight contracts.

He said: "We are focusing on inflight sales at the moment and 2004 was an excellent year for us. We made considerable progress in the channel and signed a lot of new contracts. We are in negotiations to add a further inflight contract with an airline in Libya to the portfolio by the third quarter of the year."

The company signed two new inflight concession contracts last year with Tunisair and Karthago in June 2004 and Nouvelair in November 2003.

The Tunisian operator revealed plans to strengthened its presence in the North African duty-free market last year and created Moroccan subsidiary Hamila Duty Free Morocco.

The retailer is also building a new diplomatic shop in Tunis that will be operational by mid-2006.