Dubai Duty Free annual sales touch $1.74bn in 2022

Dubai Duty Free (DDF) has achieved annual sales of $1.74bn in 2022, which marks a 78 per cent increase over the previous year’s sales.

In August, DDF recorded a 104 per cent increase in sales for the first eight months of the year, when sales reached $1.06bn.

Read: Dubai Duty Free records over $1bn in sales for first eight months of 2022

December sales were further fuelled by DDF’s 39th anniversary celebrations when the operation offered a 25 per cent discount from December 18- 20. This resulted in a shopping spree of $29.4m during the 72-hour period.

Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman and CEO, said: “We are thrilled to announce such a positive year as travel returns, during which the operation went from strength to strength. I would like to thank our chairman, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, for his ongoing support and I join him in thanking our great team of staff, our suppliers and of course our customers, who are fundamental to our continued growth and success.”

The operation recorded over 17.3 million sales transactions throughout the year, or an average of 46,912 sales transactions per day, while a staggering 47.302 million units of merchandise were sold.

With sales of $310.66m, perfume, which contributed 18 per cent of total sales, retained its position as the top selling category. It was followed by liquor, which accounted for 16 per cent of the total annual sales; gold recorded sales of $172.41m and contributed 10 per cent towards total revenue.

Tobacco products came in fourth place, with sales amounting to $154.07m and accounted for 9 per cent of total revenue, while electronics came in fifth place with sales of $137.59m, accounting for 8 per cent of total annual sales.

Online sales accounted for 2.54 per cent of the overall sales tally for 2022 and reached $44.16m.

Sales in departures across the operation totalled $1.53bn, representing 88 per cent of total annual sales, while arrivals’ sales totalled $157.092m, representing 9 per cent of total annual sales.

Meanwhile, in line with the growth of the operation, rehiring and recruitment continued with the total employee count now standing 4,663.