Tourvest Duty Free named best international inflight retailer

Johannesburg  – Tourvest Duty Free (TDF), a member of the JSE-listed Tourism Investment Corporation’s retail merchandising division, has been voted the best international inflight/marine retailer for 2006 on its Virgin Atlantic Airlines concession at the Frontier Awards held in Cannes, France.

This is the fourth time TDF has won this award, the most prestigious in the duty free retail industry worldwide.  The other three were all on TDF’s South African Airways concession.  The award is based on the retailer’s ability to meet and exceed its business objectives for the year. 

TDF was recognised as the best performer, having doubled its set sales target, increasing its spend per passenger by 10% and reducing shrinkage by over 100%.

TDF Chief executive Ian Hay said the company was honoured to be recognised for the hard work it had invested in the Virgin Atlantic concession and said the award was a testament to TDF’s enduring systems and standards, which were among the very best in the US$28 billion worldwide duty free industry. 

“We are grateful for this recognition by our peers in the industry and trust that it will spur us to achieve even greater feats next year,” he said in his acceptance speech.

In the company’s results to 30 June 2006, TDF was the retail merchandising division’s star performer, growing revenue by 21% and operating profit by 90%.  In addition to offering well known brands, the division has recently adopted a “sense of place” strategy, in terms of which product typical of the airline’s home-base was included. 

This provides local flavour and a point of differentiation, as well as supporting local suppliers.

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