Wellington names tender shortlist

John Rimmer

Print Article E-Mail Article E-Mail Author

The airport authority in New Zealand's capital city has invited seven companies to bid for the duty-free concession at the location

 Wellington Airport has invited seven retailers to bid for the location's duty-free concession, the airport has told RavenFox.com. Manager retail and development Katy Ellis said the airport had received "an excellent response" to its request for expressions of interest, and has since issued tender documents to incumbent operator Duty Free Stores New Zealand, The Nuance Group, DFS Group, King Power Group (Hong Kong), James Richardson Duty Free, Aelia and Australian Way.

The seven potential bidders must now submit proposals by October 14. The winner of the tender will be announced at the beginning of 2006.

The tender was called as Wellington plans to expand its international terminal to cater for increasing traffic. The winning bidder will move into temporary premises and trade alongside incumbent Duty Free Stores Wellington until the latter's contract expires on June 30 2009, when the new retailer will become the airport's exclusive duty-free operator until its contract expires in June 2014.