DENMARK/FRANCE/UK. Danish shipping and logistics company DFDS has today been awarded the tender to operate a new 1,000sq m duty free store in the port of Calais.
DFDS runs cross-Channel services from Dover to Calais and Dunkirk and has been awarded the contract to run the shop by the port operator, Port of Calais. The store will be located in the port’s new terminal and will commence trading in October.
The development forms part of the Calais Port 2015 project, a major investment scheme backed by the Nord Pas-de-Calais-Picardie Region, which owns the port, and funded under the European Union’s priority infrastructure plan.
The new shop at Calais is one of two new shore-based duty free shopping experiences that DFDS will offer, with the first due to open at the port of Dunkirk in July.
Development to create the new shopping experience at Dunkirk in the port’s main passenger terminal has already commenced. Work on the new facility at Calais port will begin over the next few weeks.
DFDS said it is expanding its duty free product range for the stores. This will include a range of electronics brands, a partnership with Lego and a wide variety of premium drinks, cosmetics and fragrance brands.
The shop will offer products with up to 50 per cent off UK high street prices, and will be buoyed by the return of duty free allowances for UK travellers transiting between the UK and France.
DFDS Vice-President and Head of BU Channel Filip Hermann said: “We’re delighted to win the tender to operate the new duty free shopping experience at the port of Calais. This will be complemented perfectly by our planned new shop at the port of Dunkirk, which will open in the next few months.
“Both will offer an exciting new shopping experience for cross-Channel travellers, with convenient access directly from the car lanes at our terminals, making it quick and easy to load up your vehicle with duty free goods.
“We expect the new shops at Calais and Dunkirk to be very popular, attracting thousands of new cross-Channel shoppers to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region and boosting the number of passengers travelling for daytrips or short breaks on the Continent, once travel restrictions are lifted later this summer.
“Our investment in these new shops and our continued close collaboration with the port of Calais is a clear statement of our confidence in the resilience and popularity of our cross-Channel services. We’re delighted that this partnership will enable us to offer our passengers a fantastic new dutyfree shopping experience that isn’t available elsewhere.”
DFDS will launch a new ferry, Côte d’Opale, on its Dover to Calais service later this summer. The ferry features the largest onboard shopping experience on the Channel, with a 1,100sq m duty free shop. More details will follow soon on The Moodie Davitt Report.
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