North America had the slowest regional growth in the third quarter for the travel food-to-retail combination of Dufry-Autogrill—soon to be renamed Avolta—but sales rose in double digits, up 11.1% like-for-like as the U.S. airport market continued to see solid demand from domestic and international travel.
Dufry’s Canadian business also benefited from the return of some Asian travelers during the period, though it is not expected to see a speedy ramp-up any time soon in either market.
Third quarter proforma turnover in North America—which accounts for 31% of the company’s sales—hit $1.19 billion (1,081.3 million Swiss francs) helped by the opening of several stores at Las Vegas Valley’s Harry Reid Airport, where Dufry has a contract extension through 2038; and the opening of duty-free units at Boston Logan Airport’s modernized international Terminal E where Dufry was recently awarded a 12-year concession.
It was also a busy period for food and beverage (F&B) openings at U.S. gateways including Chicago O’Hare, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, and San José.
Dufry-Autogrill saw the best growth of 45% in Asia-Pacific, its smallest market, where revenue reached $149 million in Q3, driven mainly by domestic and intra-regional travel, and some slowly returning international traffic. In China, Dufry recently announced that it was forming a joint venture with Hubei Airport Group to operate the master concession for retail and F&B at Wuhan Tianhe Airport’s Terminal 2. The airport served 27 million passengers in 2019.
The company’s biggest region of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) managed growth of 12.3%, generating $2.21 billion in Q3. In EMEA, which has a 52% share of sales, leisure demand helped both travel retail and F&B sales across destinations in Southern Europe, with the Mediterranean proving to be the top performing area. Dufry said that the United Kingdom, the Nordics and Central Europe all saw increasing international inbound travel, including returning travelers from Asia-Pacific.
Among the EMEA openings and upgrades during Q3, one of the most significant was Dufry’s Haute Perfumery concept which opened at Zurich Airport, with several other locations pipelined.
Across the whole business, Dufry-Autogrill saw like-for-like turnover grow by 14.3% in the third quarter to reach just over $4 billion (3,668.1 million Swiss francs).
Name change imminent
In a statement on Thursday, Xavier Rossinyol, CEO of Dufry Group, said: “Our Q3 2023 trading update will be the final set of results shared under the name Dufry Group. Pending the approval of our shareholders at tomorrow’s EGM, the Dufry-Autogrill business combination will become a visibly unified company under our new name Avolta.”
Commenting on the quarterly result, the CEO said it was driven by “robust demand, strong execution and the broadest portfolio in the industry.” Cost management continues, while early action on synergies between Dufry and Autogrill has paid off. “We have advanced on the integration, with our re-branding to Avolta as the final step, generating full run-rate synergies of 85 million Swiss francs ($94 million) already, one year ahead of plan,” noted Rossinyol.
He added that if the company’s current performance continued into the final quarter, “we project full year 2023 organic growth of around 20% versus the previous year turnover for the proforma combined business of 10,805 million Swiss francs ($11.9 billion).”
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