Dubai Duty Free said its anniversary day (December 20) resulted in a new daily record as sales soared to Dh111.88 million ($30.65 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 percent to mark Dubai Duty Free’s 30th Anniversary resulted in a spending spree at Dubai International Airport that began at midnight on 19th December and continued throughout the anniversary day sale.

Dubai Duty Free also sourced and offered seven different products sold at 1983 prices on the day.

Commenting on the anniversary day, Colm McLoughlin, the executive vice chairman, 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."

“We began introducing a discount offer across a wide range of merchandise on our 20th Anniversary in 2003 and it has become a popular day with travelers, some of whom book their flights in order to shop on that day,” added McLoughlin.

The statistics for the day highlight the huge volume of sales that passed through the cash points within the 24- hour period.

At 10am, the preliminary sales figure was recorded at over Dh45.7 million accounting for 86,550 sales transactions. As at 6pm, the sales reached over Dh83.4 million and an amazing 158,931 transactions and broke its anniversary sales of $21 million in 2012, , said the DDF statement.

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, it added.

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 were the second most popular category on the anniversary day with sales of Dh25.5 million.   
In the third spot came cosmetics with sales of Dh14.2 million followed by liquor in fourth position and cigarettes.

Other notable increases were seen in confectionery, which rose by 33 per cent to Dh4.5 million and Delicatessen, which recorded Dh2.3 million ($619,000). Departure sales has recorded $28.3 million representing 92.3 per cent of total anniversary sales.

The 30th Anniversary celebrations saw DDF officials headed by McLoughlin, George Horan, the president along with other senior officials conduct a Millennium Millionaire draw. 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, Rabia Rabia Manzil Asharaf, a 22-year old Indian national who won her one million dollar prize.

Winner of a previous Finest Surprise draw, Ramnath Balakrishnan, another Indian expat based in Dubai, visited DDF to receive his new sporty McLaren MP4 12C Coupe.

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.

DDF’s employees also enjoyed a special Staff Finest Surprise draw which resulted in a total of Dh190,000 being won by employees. the Dubai airport retailer 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 20th December as well at the Head Office on December 19.

Senior officials including Salah Tahlak, the senior VP (Corporate Communications), Ramesh Cidambi, senior VP (IT & Logistics), Sinead El Sibai, VP (Marketing), Saba Tahir, VP (Purchasing), Bernard Creed, VP (Finance), Nic Bruwer, VP (Human Resources) and Sean Staunton, VP (Operations) took part in the celebrations.-TradeArabia News Service