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Dubai: Dubai Duty Free on Wednesday said its sales in 2007 reached an unprecedented Dh3.17 billion ($880 million), a 24 per cent increase over the previous year's sales of $712 million.
The signs of a remarkable end to the year were seen in November and December with both months setting monthly sales records of Dh310 million ($90 million) and Dh360 million ($100 million) respectively.
The operation's 24th Anniversary Day on December 20, which offered customers a 24 per cent discount on a range of products, resulted in a massive surge in sales.
On that day, sales reached Dh46.2 million ($12.8) in the 24-hour period which was 58 per cent higher than the former record day set on December 20, 2006.
Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai City of Aviation, said: "It has been a fantastic year for Dubai Duty Free who have worked hard to maintain their position as one of the top three duty free operations in the world.
"I congratulate the team on its achievements and look forward to the year ahead which will see the retail operation more than double with the opening of the new Concourse and Terminal at Dubai International Airport."
Plans
Commenting on the 2007 sales and the plans for 2008, Colm McLoughlin, managing director of Dubai Duty Free, said: "We can look back on 2007 as a great year in which the operation went from strength to strength and sales soared to a new high. Such success is the result of a great deal of hard work by the entire team.
"Looking ahead, we are forecasting sales of $1 billion in 2008.
"So there is a great deal to look forward to in the coming months."
In 2007, the operation recorded 18,995,635 sales, translating into an average of 52,000 sales per day, up by 18 per cent on 2006.
Category-wise, perfumes continued to be the highest selling category with annual sales of Dh439 million ($122 million), or 14 per cent of the total.
Liquor retained the second slot with sales of Dh415 million ($115 million) while gold came third with sales of Dh350 million ($97 million).
Electronics, with sales of Dh279 million ($77 million) and cigarettes and tobacco with sales of Dh249 million ($69 million) where the No 4 and No 5 top-selling categories respectively.
The top five categories accounted for 55 per cent of total sales.
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