Avolta

Leading travel experience player Avolta leaps back to the top of our global rankings based on its strong momentum amid a transformative year in 2023.

The company posted +21.6% year-on-year organic growth (proforma) in turnover to CHF12,534.6 million (€13,548 million). Within this, duty-free and duty-paid activities represented 68% of revenue, or €9,208 million (converted from Swiss Francs at 31 December exchange rates). A further 32% came from food & beverage via the business combination with Autogrill, consolidated since 1 February 2023. [Note: Our full report in The Magazine will include a ranking of top travel food & beverage players -Ed]

Just over a year after that deal, Dufry Group CEO Xavier Rossinyol delivered some key messages to investors and to the wider market about the combined group’s ambitions.

“I expect to grow not only in line with passenger growth, but ahead of that growth,” he said on 8 March. “Thanks to our data, our consumer-centricity and the combination of F&B and retail, we can do things nobody else can do. And that will allow us to have the structure for competitive advantage and growth.”

Avolta said that in coming years it expects to reach the upper end of organic sales growth estimates of +5-7% per annum, ahead of the average annual passenger growth predicted by ACI World (+4.3% CAGR from 2024 to 2042).

Spend per head was “strongly positive” in 2023, a trend that has continued in the first half of 2024. The return of more high-spending Asian travellers to many markets should bolster this further, management expects.

Full commentary appears in our July/August Magazine, out soon.