April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Lotte Duty Free has maintained the third place for two consecutive years among the world’s duty-free operators by 2015 revenue, it announced on Oct. 24.

According to The Moodie Report, Lotte’s sales in 2015 reached 3.75 billion euros (US$4.08 billion), after Switzerland’s Dufry (5.68 billion euros) and US’s DFS Group (3.77 billion euros).

Lotte beat France’s LS Travel Retail to the third rank in 2014, and has closed in on DFS, in line with its aim to become the top duty-free operator by 2020. 

The retail giant, however, has been hit by the failure to renew its license for its World Tower branch in Seoul, making it hard to even to maintain its current position. Opened in 2014, Lotte’s World Tower duty-free store has recorded the third-largest revenue in the country, and was the first store to reach 4 trillion won sales. The next bid for the license to operate a downtown duty-free store is scheduled for December.

Hotel Shilla has moved a notch up to the sixth place with 2.29 billion euros revenue.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)