Hamila forecasts 50% sales growth in 2005

Tina Milton

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

The Tunisian company's growth will be fuelled by developments beyond its home market

Hamila Duty Free is forecasting sales growth of 50% during 2005, driven by the development of its operations in Morocco, Libya and Algeria. Hamila is also building a new diplomatic shop in Tunis that will be operational by mid-2006 and is close to signing an inflight concession deal in Libya, although it could not disclose details at this stage.

Hamila Duty Free director Ghofrane Zitouni told RavenFox.com that several new contracts gained last year made it difficult to ascertain the group's real growth in 2004. "Last year Hamila signed three new concessions contracts with Tunisair and Karthago in June 2004 and Nouvelair in November 2003, so there can be no possible comparison between 2003 and 2004 because our figures grew by more than 100%."

Liquor and tobacco account for more than 80% of sales at the company and Johnnie Walker and Marlboro are the best-selling brands for the two categories.

In 2004 Hamila also renewed the contracts for its car ferries on the Marseilles-Genoa route and its shops in the Tunisian port of Goulette.