Dufry has now predicted a sales decline of anything from forty and seventy percent due to the pandemic and as a result is cutting its personal costs by between twenty and thirty percent.
Travel retail had previously been one of the most successful sectors of the luxury and discretionary goods market but lockdowns and travel bans have seen it hit the hardest of all sectors.
The period from March to June should have been extremely busy for travel retail businesses around the world, however the massive amounts of fragrances, make up, premium and high-end accessories and more that it could have expected to sell remain on store shelves.
And they’re not likely to be sold any time soon. While airport stores – such as Dufry’s World Duty Free operations at Heathrow – have reopened, the number of people travelling for business or pleasure remains tiny and is unlikely to reach the levels of 2019 and early 2020 for several years.
