A GLOBAL AMBITION ANNuAL REPORT 2006 - Dufry

uSINESS DESCRIPTIoN
Dufry Annual Report 2006 — Business Description
Serving customers around the world: anywhere – anytime
Dufry is one of the world’s leading travel retail companies, operating over 440
shops with more than 79,000 m 2 of retail space in 37 countries around the
globe. Our customers are travelers from throughout the world and this makes
our business something special. Our shops and assortment are designed to
make our customers feel at home and at the same time give them the excitement
of being abroad. Therefore, Dufry works with more than 1,000 suppliers
and the list includes all global and luxury brands as well as producers of local
specialties.
We manage all of our operations directly and staff every shop with our own
employees, in order to be as close to the customer as possible. Thanks to this,
our local staff has an in-depth understanding of our customers and can provide
direct customer feedback, which we use to further improve our assortment and
services, not only in the respective location but across Dufry.
Depending on the location, we use three different retail concepts to fully capitalize
on the existing opportunities:
— General Travel Retail
In these shops, we offer a wide range of product categories like perfumes,
cosmetics, wines, spirits, tobacco, food, watches, jewelry, accessories, and
others. Our customers have access to duty-free and / or duty-paid shops,
depending on their destination. We operate duty-free departure shops, located
at the restricted departure area of international airports and, in certain
countries and locations we also operate duty-free arrival shops, located in
the restricted arrival areas of such international airports.
— brand boutiques
These boutiques have an assortment of one specific brand and are fully operated
by Dufry with our own staff. Brand boutiques operated by Dufry include
prestigious names such as Bulgari, DKNY, Dolce & Gabbana, Etro,
Ferragamo, Hermès, Kenneth Cole, Mont Blanc, Versace or Zegna.
— Specialized Shops
These are boutiques specializing in one specific type of product, offering a
variety of different brands, like cigar shops, jewelry and watch shops, chocolate
stores, etc.
Our sales persons are at the heart of our business and it is their contribution
every day that makes the difference for our customers. However, we complement
their service with additional marketing techniques, which help our customers
to identify the products they want and to demonstrate new products
they may not know. The range of instruments includes displays, promotions,
tasting, leaflets, loyalty programs or gifts. We also give our suppliers the opportunity
to position their brands in an optimal way by providing advertising
space within our shops. Recognizing the fact that some travelers desire to plan
their duty-free purchases in advance, Dufry South America also established an
internet pre-order system on their website, which is often used by customers
traveling abroad.