CHINA. China Duty Free Group (CDFG) parent company China Tourism Group CDFG Co (China Tourism Group) announced today that Wang Xuan has been appointed General Manager (President) of CDFG, replacing Chen Guoqiang (Charles Chen) who has resigned from the role.
Chen, who has served CDFG with great distinction since 1987, and since December 2016 as President, will remain a director of the company and be eligible for election to the newly created role of Vice-Chairman.
The Board expressed its sincere thanks to Chen for his contribution to the company’s development during his leadership tenure.
Li Gang is nominated as a new Non-Independent Director. The proposal has been approved by the Independent Directors of CDFG, and submitted to the Shareholder’s Meeting for approval. Li is currently Deputy General Manager at China Tourism Group, and previously took on various roles including Chairman and Director at China International Travel Services.
In other changes, the Independent Directors also approved the proposals for Chang Zhujjn (Luke Chang) to serve as Executive Deputy General Manager and Zhou Lingjun as Deputy General Manager.
Wang Xuan, born in September 1968, was formerly Executive Deputy General Manager. He was previously Chairman and General Manager of CDFG’s Sanya downtown duty free business and Chairman of CDFG Cambodia among several other senior roles. He is a graduate from Beijing University of Science and Technology and has a Master of Management and a Master of Business Administration.
Chang also serves as General Manager of China Duty Free International Ltd in Hong Kong and is Secretary to the Board of CDFG. Zhou currently also serves as General Manager of CDFG’s Hainan subsidiary.
MT Research commented: “Wang Xuan’s appointment as General Manager is expected to accelerate the company’s foreign investment and M&A projects and will be good for the long-term development of the company.”
An insight into Wang’s ambitious thinking can be gleaned from his comments at a press conference last August just before China Tourism Group’s secondary listing. He noted, “As the leader in the travel retail industry we have unparalleled competitive advantages… with both scale and a huge potential for growth.
“We have ranked number one among all Chinese duty free operators for five consecutive years, with a market share of 86% in China in 2021, outpacing the number two by a factor of 20. Our growth rates far exceeded those of other top global travel retail operators.”
He continued: “As more and more Chinese consumers travel abroad and become the most important spenders in the global duty free industry, we are also following wherever they are going by opening new stores overseas.”
Wang (pictured above) noted at the press conference that the group’s M&A activities had proven highly successful, citing the Sunrise China (2017) and Sunrise Shanghai (2018) acquisitions, deals which had brought critical access to airports in Beijing and Shanghai.
“Our post-merger integration capabilities have also helped our acquired companies increase performance significantly. For example, after our acquisition of Hainan Duty Free in 2020, CDFG’s revenue to external customers increased by +258.5% year-on-year in the second half of 2020,” he noted.
Chen told The Moodie Davitt Report today. “Please pass my thanks all the vendors, business partners and friends for their support of me and CDFG over so many years. I really value the relationship with all of you so much which ranks as the greatest treasure of my life. And in the future, I will continue to do my best to contribute to the duty free and travel retail industry.”
Chen said he had seen CDFG evolve from a very young company to the number one travel retailer in the world. “I am very satisfied and want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.”
