Jalux reports retail boost

Gavin Lipsith

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

The group's venture with DFS Group at Tokyo Narita airport shines while Blue Sky's retail performance dips slightly

At Jalux's Blue Sky subsidiary, which operates 95 retail and catering outlets at 24 airports throughout Japan, sales for the year dipped slightly, by Y19m ($172,500) to just under Y7bn ($63.5m). The trend followed a slight decline in international passenger traffic over the year. Blue Sky has opened eight new outlets since April 2005: five at New Chitose airport, one at Narita and its debut stores at Kita Kyushu and Kobe airports. Since January 2004, when Jalux merged with JAL Trading before floating on the Tokyo stock exchange, Blue Sky has opened 34 outlets.

The company also reported a decrease in sales for its inflight services division, which includes onboard duty-free operations. Sales dipped by Y133m ($1.2m) to Y1.3bn ($11.8m) for the year.

Overall the company, which also manages travel services, aircraft leasing and servicing and mail order catalogue businesses, reported a 17.7% in net profit to Y1.7bn ($15.3m), with revenues up by 9.5% to Y108bn ($975m).