CARIBBEAN/LATIN AMERICA. Motta Internacional is set to make its debut in Trinidad & Tobago this month, and has also revealed plans to expand its Colombian airport operations.
Motta Internacional CEO Erasmo Orillac said: “We will be opening a new operation in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as new spaces in Bogotá and Cali airports.”
The new Trinidad & Tobago stores, located at Piarco International Airport, extend Motta’s network to the Caribbean for the first time. The first of the stores is scheduled to open this month, confirmed Orillac.
The main 70sq m store is located on the ground floor of departures, with two further stores, one in each wing. The latter two stores are around 18sq m each and will offer best-selling items, Motta confirmed. The company has a five-year contract, renewable at the end of the term.
Motta’s key existing markets are Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
The retailer is also preparing to bolster its Colombian operations. At Cali Airport, a new store will open in mid-May, while additional space in Bogotá will open by 1 June, Orillac said.
Although Latin American travel retail has been through a period of sustained difficulty, with Brazil’s economic weakness allied to shifting exchanges rates among many regional currencies against the US Dollar, Orillac remained upbeat about the year ahead.
He said: “2016 was a better year for Latin America, which meant our performance was better than in 2015. We are cautious but positive about 2017.”
*More on Motta Internacional’s plans will appear soon in Moodie Davitt Interactive March/April, with the hard copy print edition available at the IAADFS Duty Free Show of the Americas later this month.
