(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Dubai Duty Free marked its 30th anniversary in style on December 20 with a new daily sales record of Dh111.88 million as the airport retailer extended up to 30 per cent discount on a wide range of products.
The new daily record represents a 40 per cent increase over last year's anniversary sales.
A special discount offer of up to 30 per cent to mark Dubai Duty Free's 30th Anniversary resulted in a spending spree at Dubai International Airport that began at midnight on December 19 and continued throughout the anniversary day sale. Dubai Duty Free also sourced and offered seven different products sold at 1983 prices on the day.
Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman, Dubai Duty Free said: "We had a fantastic day on our anniversary with a huge surge of sales. Extending a 30 per cent discount to our customers was our way of saying thank you for three decades of support. "
He said the airport retailer began introducing a discount offer across a wide range of merchandise on its 20th Anniversary in 2003 and it has become a popular day with travellers, some of whom book their flights in order to shop on that day.
The statistics for the day highlight the huge volume of sales that passed through the cash points within the 24-hour period.
At 10.00am, the preliminary sales figure was recorded at over Dh45.7million accounting for 86,550 sales transactions. As at 6pm, DDF sales reached over Dh83.4 million and an amazing 158,931 transactions and broke its anniversary sales of $21 million in 2012. By 10pm, the cash registers continued to ring and recorded 193,163 transactions and sales reached over Dh99.7 million while the final figure when the anniversary day sale ended reached an incredible Dh111.88 million. From a category point of view, Perfumes was the highest selling category with sales of Dh31.2 million and representing 27.9 per cent of the total daily sales.
Watches and Clocks was the second most popular category on the anniversary day with sales of Dh25.5 million. Cosmetics came in at third place, category wise, with sales of Dh14.2 million.
Other notable increases were seen in confectionery, which rose by 33 per cent to Dh4.5 million and delicatessen, which recorded Dh2.3 million. Departure sales have recorded $28.3 million representing 92.3 per cent of total anniversary sales.
The 30th Anniversary celebrations saw DDF officials headed by Colm McLoughlin, George Horan, President along with other senior officials conduct a M illennium Millionaire draw in Series no 156 € ticket no. 3468. The winner was Ajith Krishnan, a Dubai-based Indian national who purchased the winning ticket along with his nine colleagues from the Perfect Tools Moulds Factory in Dubai.
Following the draw, a presentation was made to a previous Millennium Millionaire winner, Ms Rabia Rabia Manzil Asharaf, a twenty-two-year old Indian national who won her one million dollar prize in Series 155 with ticket no 4993.
Winner of a previous Finest Surprise draw visited Dubai Duty Free as well to receive his prize. Ramnath Balakrishnan, an Indian national living in Dubai stood proudly next to his sporty McLaren MP4 12C Coupe which he won in Series 1546 with ticket no1351.
Following all of the excitement of the draw and presentations in Terminal 1, Dubai Duty Free senior managers then proceeded to Terminal 3-Concourse B where a Finest Surprise draw for two luxury cars and a motorbike was held and two final draws for the Shop and Win promotion to win a 30g DDF gold coin. Dubai Duty Free's employees also enjoyed a special Staff Finest Surprise draw which resulted in a total of Dhs190,000 being won by employees. Dubai Duty Free currently employs 6,000 staff and of the original 100 staff who joined in December 1983, 44 remain in active service.
Dubai Duty Free had the ceremonial cutting of the 30th Anniversary cake across the three Concourses and at Al Maktoum International Airport on December 20 as well at the Head Office on December 19.
Present at the celebration were other Dubai Duty Free senior officials namely: Salah Tahlak, Senior Vice President-Corporate Communications, Ramesh Cidambi, Senior Vice President- IT & Logistics, Sinead El Sibai, Vice President € Marketing, Saba Tahir, Vice President-Purchasing, Bernard Creed, Vice President-Finance, Nic Bruwer, Vice President-Human Resources and Sean Staunton, Vice President-Operations.
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