Entas Duty Free celebrates soft opening at Paradise City Resort

SOUTH KOREA. Entas Duty Free celebrated the soft opening of its Paradise City Store at the Paradise City Resort complex adjacent to Incheon International Airport on 21 December.

Entas Duty Free CEO David Yu told The Moodie Davitt Report that the grand opening will take place in April. Some 70% of the shops, representing 150 brands, opened this month.

The Paradise City store embraces 3,300sq m of retail and supporting facilities. The watches & jewellery category is located on the first floor and occupies 40% of total retail space. The cosmetics & perfumes zone is sited on the second floor and takes up another 40%.

The dazzling look of the new facility takes shape. Note the giant digital screen overhead.

“Entas Duty Free will focus on casino visitors and FITs to Paradise City Resort,” Yu said.  “Paradise City’s second phase of the construction (water park, shopping mall, theme park and Asia’s largest club) was completed in September 2018, and the number of visitors is expected to grow to 2.6 million in 2019 compared to 1.4 million in 2018.

“Entas Duty Free is the only downtown duty free store in Incheon and proximity to Incheon Airport is a great advantage to attract customers,” Yu added.

Beauty occupies around 40% of total space with high-end international and skincare brands to the fore.

As revealed by The Moodie Davitt Report in October, Shinhan Investment Corporation’s private equity fund invested KW20 billion (US$18 million) in Entas Duty Free in the run-up to the Paradise City opening – the first time a private equity fund has invested in a duty free operator in Korea.

Entas Duty Free had already raised KRW15 billion (US$13.51 million) from shareholders and banks in July this year.

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