AUSTRALASIA. South Korean travel retail giant Lotte Duty Free today marked its expansion into the Oceanic region with a grand opening ceremony at one of its newly acquired Australian stores at Brisbane Airport.
The event followed the company’s acquisition of JR/Duty Free’s Australasian interests at the end of last year. The Brisbane Airport stores have been rebranded as Lotte Duty Free.
Lotte Duty Free, the world’s second-biggest travel retailer according to The Moodie Davitt Report’s annual Top 25 industry ranking, said it aims to be the leading operator in Australia and New Zealand by 2023 and to achieve sales of US$200 million in the region in its first year.
Australia has demonstrated strong growth of over 10% in incoming Chinese tourists in recent years, Lotte noted. Chinese consumers are some of the biggest spenders globally, the retailer added.
The JR acquisition brought with it five JR/Duty Free stores in the region: four in Australia (Brisbane Airport, Melbourne downtown, Darwin Airport and Canberra Airport) and one in New Zealand (Wellington Airport).
Lotte Duty Free now operates in seven countries outside of South Korea. The company said that it had posted an operating profit in its Da Nang and Nha Trang Cam Ran airport stores in Vietnam in the first year of operation while the Tokyo Ginza downtown store in Japan had generated 120% annual sales growth since opening.
During his first visit to Australia, Lotte Duty Free CEO Kap Lee stated, “Successfully entering into Oceania is the next step in Lotte Duty Free becoming the world’s number one travel retailer and the most influential in the region. We have almost 40 years of retail excellence that is being introduced to Australia and New Zealand, working side-by-side with our local colleagues to better understand the unique wants and needs of people from all nationalities travelling through the region.”
Lotte Duty Free, a long-time pioneer of digital innovation in travel retail, said that it plans to improve its online business in Australia by introducing technology upgrades.
The retailer noted that it is expanding its downtown business, actively participating in airport concession tenders and accelerating its global expansion to meet its target of US$1 billion in international sales by 2020.
*Footnote: Look out for Kap Lee’s first trade interview since assuming the CEO role in January, conducted by Martin Moodie during a recent visit to Seoul, coming soon.
Lotte Duty Free Australia / New Zealand fact file
Brisbane Airport
- Brisbane International Airport (Arrivals & Departures)
- 2,795sq m
- Over 600 local and international brands
- Features a specialist whisky bar – a first for a duty free store in Australia.
Melbourne Downtown
- Melbourne CBD
- 400sq m
- A comprehensive assortment of brands across beauty, wines & spirits, watches, accessories, technology, confectionery & food and health and wellbeing.
Darwin Airport
- Darwin International (Arrivals & Departures)
- 692sq m
- A comprehensive assortment of brands across beauty wines & spirits, watches, accessories, technology, confectionery & food and health and wellbeing.
Canberra Airport
- Canberra International (Departures)
- 106sq m
- Beauty, wines & spirits, technology, confectionery.
Wellington Airport
- Wellington International (Arrivals & Departures)
- 1,402sq m
- Beauty, wines & spirits, watches, accessories, technology, confectionery & food and health and wellbeing.
- Features a specialist whisky bar – a first for a duty free store in New Zealand.
