Duty-free retailer Dufry’s sales soar as European travel takes off

(Reuters) -Dufry’s organic sales more than doubled in the first quarter, the Swiss duty-free retailer said on Thursday, driven by a strong rebound in European travel as coronavirus curbs were eased.

The Basel-based company reported turnover of 1.12 billion Swiss francs ($1.14 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 460.3 million a year earlier, though still 40% below 2019 pre-pandemic level.

The retailer, which operates around 2,200 shops at airports, on cruise liners, in seaports, and other tourist locations worldwide, said it saw a particularly strong recovery in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, where its sales more than tripled from a year earlier.

EMEA is Dufry’s main market alongside the Americas. The two regions last year generated 44% of the group turnover each.

“The positive trend has so far continued into April and May, with contributions from nearly all regions globally,” Chief Executive Officer Julian Diaz, who will leave his position at the end of this month, said in a statement.

The group’s equity free cash outflow narrowed to 86.8 million Swiss francs in the first quarter. This was better than pre-pandemic in 2019, when it recorded a quarterly cash burn of 123 million francs.

As of March, Dufry had over 1,960 stores open globally, representing around 85% of its total store fleet and more than 90% of 2019 sales potential, the group said.

($1 = 0.9858 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Jagoda Darlak and Alexander Kloss in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)