SRI LANKA. In an extraordinary development, Duty Free World Council (DFWC) today denied making comments attributed to it by the Ceylon Today newspaper and website, relating to the controversially delayed duty free tender at Colombo Bandaranaike Airport.
As reported, Airport & Aviation Services has extended the deadline for bids from 23 June to 7 July. The current concession is split between World Duty Free Group and Flemingo. Total sales are estimated at around US$70 million a year.
The airport authority will continue with that model, with two concessionaires each managing one duty free shop in Arrivals and one in Departures, both under five-year terms.
On Wednesday 29 June Ceylon Today published an article about the tender in both its print and online editions. The article attributed several comments to DFWC President Frank O’Connell, which according to the Council “have no basis in fact and were never made”.
DFWC said: “The article also makes reference to an alleged letter from Mr. O’Connell written on behalf of the DFWC to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation in Sri Lanka in relation to the duty free concessions at Colombo Bandaranaike Airport which are currently subject to a tender process. No such letter was written.
“The Council has not made any comments or representation in any form concerning the duty free tender process nor in relation to any aspect of the duty free business in Sri Lanka. The Council has now entered into communication with the publisher of the article to ensure the false impression created by the article shall be made right.”
The article, headed “Airport and Aviation Services: bungles Int’l Duty- Free bidding” contained the following [highly unlikely -Ed] “quotes” from DFWC, allegedly contained in a letter to the authority [Important note: The references to “said company” are to an incumbent retailer that allegedly pushed for the bid to be delayed. Some of the comments are clearly inaccurate and damaging and are only referred to in part here because they have been exposed as never made by the DFWC in the first place -Ed].
- “Most of the bidders complain to us that there is unnecessary political involvement between the bid company and some of the officials from Airport and Aviation which supports [the said company] to take over the next five years operation license [sic]. If the process is happening like this, what is the point in publishing an international tender to bid?”
- “As of yesterday [17 June] afternoon, we could see again that your committee published that bid closing date changed to 7 July. This is giving all of us the idea that your committee is working without the proper knowledge of bidding in an international airport. Can international operators who are participating trust your procedures? What is the transparency of the bidding process?”
- “Many operators now would like to have their operations in the APAC region. As an organization, we are keenly monitoring the process following in Sri Lanka due to this bidding announced after 25 years. This is more important to Sri Lanka to get down [sic] world class travel retail operators to the country.”
The article also quotes the DFWC as saying it had received “several complaints from a few of the competitive brands regarding the operation run by [the said company]”. Citing the supposed DFWC letter, it went on to make a number of inaccurate, unsubstantiated and damaging claims about the retailer concerned – again quoting the Council as the source.
The story also cites (correctly) The Moodie Davitt Report, which reported that the bidding process had been pushed back by two weeks to 7 July due to high levels of interest. That report quoted (again correctly) Airport & Aviation Services Head of Commercial & Properties Geeth Karunaratne, who said: “There has been a lot of demand from Asia and Europe. Bidders wanted more time to submit their applications so we extended the deadline. We hope to finalise the process by September.”
