They award the millionaire business of the “duty free” shops at Girona airport

2023-07-31 06:19:01

The company of Swiss origin Dufry will continue to operate duty free stores of the airports of Girona, El Prat, Reus and Barajas. The company directed in Catalan Xavier Rossinyol she was the only one to do one offer in the second tender for the operation of duty-free shops of the airports of Madrid and Catalonia, after these two lots were left empty in the previous bidding procedure. The offer presented by Dufry amounts to 185 million euros and covers the minimum amount that Aena had demanded both in the first and in the second tender.

The rent of space in the terminals for the duty-free shops is the main source of income within Aena’s commercial business. In the initial tender for the “duty free” business, Aena imposed as a condition that no operator absorbed more than 80% of the business. At the end of May, the Aena Board of Directors awarded the management of duty-free shops in a total of 23 Spanish airports, but the lots corresponding to Madrid and Catalonia were deserted.

In May, the lot Andalusia-Mediterranean, as well as that of the Balearic Islands, fell to the Dufry company. The award in the Canary Islands was for Canariensis, and for the northern airports (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and Euskadi) the awardee was the French group Lagardère.

Now, after winning – as the only bidder – the “duty free” of Madrid and Catalonia in a separate tender from the previous one, the result is that Dufry, the company run by Rossinyol, it will be done with a market share close to 90% of the business from duty-free shops in Spanish airports. Aena’s “duty free” competition launched last December is the largest competition in the world in this area by expected volume of business, some 18,000 million eurosin which the points of sale involved occupy a commercial area of ​​66,000 square meters.

An “attractive” business

The results at the end of the process show that it is one “attractive” business and “the consolidation of the recovery of air traffic after the pandemic”, assures Aena in a statement. The airport manager stands out “the excellent technical proposals”whose initiatives will be implemented in airport shops “to offer a service of the highest quality”.