Top Travel Retailers Report (continued)
DFS Group
2021 Sales (million)
€3,100
2021 Rank
5
We estimate DFS Group gross sales at €3.1 billion, which as with other top players includes some online and wholesale business, driven by the pandemic.
The leading luxury travel retailer, co-owned by LVMH Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and DFS Co-Founder Robert Miller, maintains a diversified network of on- and off-airport stores. It is targeting the traveller in new locations, notably in Europe with the opening of ambitious city shopping complexes in Venice and Paris in recent years.
Landmark project: Samaritaine Paris Pont-Neuf by DFS, opened in June 2021. Photo: @Matthieu Salvaing
These will be bolstered soon by new developments in Australia (Brisbane) and New Zealand (Queenstown), amid a wider drive “to create destinations within destinations” wherever it operates.
While DFS has diversified, its focus on the Chinese consumer remains paramount. It has strong insights into this consumer built up over the past two decades, which it overlays with DFS’ own unrivalled focus on luxury, alongside a big investment in digital innovation.
On 31 January 2021, DFS and partner (and licence holder) Shenzhen Duty Free Group opened phase one of their new duty free retail complex (below) set in the upscale Mission Hills Haikou Resort (with phase two in May that year), underlining the focus on the offshore duty free market.
In December last year the partners expanded that complex, opening the biggest-ever Beauty Hall in the DFS global store network, spanning more than 68,000sq ft (6,300sq m) over two levels. By the end of 2022, the Beauty Hall will feature up to 100 beauty brands.
A further highly significant move in China was DFS’ capture of a concession to operate 13 fashion, watches and jewellery stores in the domestic Terminal 3A at Chongqing Jiangbei Airport from November. It represents the first time in Mainland China that the company has won a contract through an open tender. It is also a pioneering Chinese domestic terminal contract for DFS, signalling its continued high ambition in a core market.
As the exclusive retailer in Queen’s Wharf Brisbane, DFS will create a shopping oasis spanning over 6,000sq m of luxury retail floorspace in the historic Printery Building
Partner's message
The Moodie Davitt eZine Issue 313 | 28 July 2022
The Moodie Davitt eZine is published 14 times per year by The Moodie Davitt Report (Moodie International Ltd). © All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher. To find out more visit www.moodiedavittreport.com and to subscribe, please e-mail kristyn@moodiedavittreport.com