Dubai Duty Free posts record Dh146m Jan sales

Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free said: "January sales have been tremendous and are a good indicator for the year ahead. The buoyant start to the year, which began with the announcement of record annual sales of Dh1.37 billion (US$380 million) for 2003, looks set to continue into 2004."

During January, daily sales consistently topped Dh4 million. On Friday, 30th January, daily sales soared to Dh6.2 million, just below the record sales day set on December 20th last year, when sales on the operation's 20th anniversary day reached a staggering Dh7.1 million.

In January, top categories including gold, perfumes and electronics showed significant increases. Gold sales reached Dh17 million accounting for 12 per cent of total sales, while both Perfumes and Electronics reached Dh16 million (US$4.4 million) with each category accounting for 11 per cent of the total monthly sales. In 2003, Dubai Duty Free recorded nine million sales transactions, which is an average of 24,524 transactions per day. On January 30th, when sales reached Dh6.2 million, the operation recorded 37,710 sales transactions