This undated photo provided by Lotte Duty Free shows a sign outside Melbourne Airport in Australia. The duty-free retail arm of Hotel Lotte Co. is scheduled to open a duty-free store in the airport starting June 1, 2023.
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Lotte Duty Free, the travel retailer of Hotel Lotte Co., has won a concession to operate a duty-free store at Australia’s Melbourne Airport, company officials said Thursday, as the company prepares for a boom in international travel amid a global reopening
Lotte Duty Free said it will open the 3,592-square-meter duty-free store on June 1 and will operate it until May of 2033.
“Our new store will become the core base in our business recovery and global expansion,” said Kim Ju-nam, CEO of Lotte Duty Free.
“We expected the new store to become a foothold in our goal of becoming the No. 1 duty-free retailer in the Oceania region.”
Lotte Duty Free said it plans to expand the size of the duty-free store at Melbourne Airport to 5,800 square meters and aims for an annual sales target of 300 billion won (USD$243.6 million).
The duty-free market in Australia and New Zealand is estimated to have been around 1.3 trillion won before the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said.
The latest deal could give a boost to the retailer’s overseas business as pent-up travel demand surges amid eased virus curbs.
The retailer’s annual sales from its global business surged over fourfold from 2021 to 2022, the company said.
Hotel Lotte operates 13 overseas duty-free stores in six countries, including the inner city store in Sydney of Australia and its downtown store in Da Nang City, Vietnam.
(Yonhap)
