On Monday, August 15, officials from the Miami-Dade Aviation Department and Duty Free Americas celebrated the grand opening of the first duty free boutique locations for luxury brands Coach, Emporio Armani, Montblanc and Thomas Pink at Miami International Airport.

The new locations, which began with the public opening of Coach in February and continued with Montblanc in April, Emporio Armani in May and Thomas Pink on August 10, are all located near gates D-9 and D-10 in Concourse D.

DFA celebrated the new stores with a grand opening ceremony that included guided tours by brand representatives and ribbon cuttings for each store, a red carpet fashion show with professional models by Emporio Armani, entertainment by a classic pianist, and grand opening remarks by DFA President Jerome Falic and Miguel Southwell, MDAD Deputy Director of Business Retention and Development.

Miami-Dade Aviation Director José Abreu joins Duty Free Americas officials to celebrate the opening of DFA’s first brand boutiques at MIA.

Two mock guards dressed in the traditional British “Coldstream Guards” uniform flanked the entrance of the 1,265-square-foot Thomas Pink store, the brand’s first U.S. airport location. Established in London, Thomas Pink is part of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey group and a leading international retailer of luxury shirts and fine clothing, with flagship stores in London, New York, Paris and more than 80 boutiques and concessions worldwide. The MIA store offers an array of men’s and women’s apparel and a wide range of accessories.

MIA’s Emporio Armani store – the brand’s first airport location in North America – is a 1,020-square-foot boutique that offers the brand’s complete lifestyle collection for men and women, including formal wear and casual wear, sportswear, leather accessories, watches, eyewear and jewelry.

The 690-square-foot Montblanc location is the brand’s first-ever travel retail boutique and features its renowned high-quality writing instruments as well its expanded product range that now includes writing accessories, leather goods, male and female jewelry, eyewear and watches.

The 1,075-square-foot Coach boutique is one of only two airport locations for the brand in the U.S. and offers leather goods and men’s and women’s accessories.

Duty Free Americas, Inc. is the largest duty free retailer in North America, with 115 duty free and news and gift stores in U.S. airports and along the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.

“DFA’s new boutiques take the luxury brand offerings at MIA to another level with duty free products not yet available in other airports,” said Adrian Songer, MDAD Concession Business Development Chief. “We are extremely honored that DFA chose MIA as their first U.S. airport for these prestigious, high-end brands.”

Duty Free Americas - Premier Worldwide Duty Free Shops

Duty Free Americas has undergone an explosion of growth in the seven years since brothers Simon, Jerome and Leon Falic acquired the company from BAA just weeks after 9/11. DFA stores now extend as far as Macao in China. But even as the company casts its collective eyes overseas [it expressed strong interest in the recent auction for World Duty Free], its major commitment today remains in the Americas. Not only is DFA the largest airport duty free operator in the US, with stores in 13 locations in New York, Detroit, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Miami, Phoenix, and three Texas cities, it is also the largest duty free retailer on both the Northern border with Canada and the Southern border with Mexico.

At the same time, DFA has quietly been accumulating a strong base further south, developing a major presence in Central and Latin America as well. DFA stores are now operating in Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela, and the company is poised to become a significant player in Uruguay, where it will open the first of six state-of-the-art duty free stores along the border with Brazil starting this month. DFA today comprises some 150 stores, plus its luxury operation in Macao and all of them are about to undergo a fundamental upgrade in design and concept.

“We are now in the process of advancing to a second stage of development,” explains Enrique Urioste, who joined DFA as President of its Airports Division last September. Urioste, who rose to prominence in the duty free industry as one of the founders and the first head of South American Duty Free Association ASUTIL, comes to DFA after a successful stint at Argentina’s Interbaires airport duty free operation where he is credited with building the Buenos Aires airports into award-winning showplaces that have become a benchmark of quality in the hemisphere.

“Our mission now is to make the entire retail offer – in all the DFA-owned stores – more upscale and luxurious.”

Urioste tells Insider that the company has identified three specific steps it must take in order to achieve its goal:

“First we must prepare our shops to be more luxurious. Upgrading the stores involve programs from developing clear category segmentation to installing hightech illumination.

Duty Free Americas - Premier Worldwide Duty Free Shops

Leading US duty free operator Duty Free Americas (DFA), and its owners, Simon, Jerome and Leon Falic, took a giant step forward in expanding its international business beyond the Americas on August 28, opening two stores in the new super deluxe Venetian Macau Resort Hotel complex, their first operation outside of the Americas.

Macao, a duty free resort area located 70 miles from Hong Kong, is a colonial city with a Portuguese/ Chinese heritage. Over the past few years it has become positioned as a worldclass business and leisure destination. According to recent statistics from China released by the Macau Tourism Board, 22 million tourists visited Macao in 2006. Macao expects between 24 and 25 million visitors in 2007, with over 50% of the arrivals coming from mainland China.

The 3,000-suite Venetian Macao is one of the centerpieces of the city’s development and the anchor of the Cotai Strip, which will eventually house a potential of 3-million square feet of shopping malls. The complex was developed by the owners of Las Vegas Sands Corp. who also developed the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The Venetian Macao’s Grand Canel Shoppes feature nearly one million square feet of retail space on three levels. The Baroquethemed mall will encompass 350 luxury and super luxury shops says the company.

At the resort’s opening on Tuesday, DFA unveiled one shop of approximately 4,000sf that carries fragrances, cosmetics, sunglasses and electronics and, located across from it, a second 4,000sf shop carrying liquor, tobacco and confectionary.

“Our shops are in an excellent position near the casino,” Jerome Falic, DFA chief executive officer tells Insider.

“They are located at the entrance where the buses drop off the people and where most visitors to the hotel will be coming through. The hotel is expecting about 50,000 people a day to come through those doors.”

Falic adds that the casino is the largest in the world, and “is packed with people. It is really an amazing sight. I have never seen or imagined anything like it,” he said.

In addition to the two DFA shops on the ground floor, Falic says the company is opening an 8,000sqf store upstairs on the Canal level in November.

“It will feature an 850sqf Lancôme shop, an 800sf Cartier corner and an 800sf Bulgari corner, in addition to other luxury brands,” he said.

In related news, DFA has hired Martha Rosas, well-known duty free manager of eyewear group Luxottica, as purchasing director for Asia: “Martha is located in Hong Kong overseeing the purchasing for our first project there in Macao,” said Falic.

Duty Free Americas wins RavenFox Retail Award

Duty Free Americas was named Americas Travel Retailer of the Year at the second Raven Fox Awards for Travel Retail Excellence in the Americas in Fort Lauderdale on March 26th. Duty Free Americas (DFA) won the top award at the Raven Fox Awards for Travel Retail Excellence in the Americas last night, held at a ceremony during the Duty Free Show of the Americas in Fort Lauderdale. DFA beat tough competition from the region’s leading retailers to secure the award, which it complemented with the award for Border/Downtown Travel Retailer of the Year for its store at San Ysidro on the US/Mexico border.

On October 6, 2005, Duty Free Americas opened a new 8,000 square foot store at the Peace Bridge, Buffalo, New York. The new store features an extra 3,000 square feet of selling space, in addition to improved access and parking.

On June 6, 2005, Duty Free Americas Miami, LLC (an entity controlled by DFA) was selected by Miami-Dade County’s Request for Proposal (RFP) Evaluation Team to be the duty free concessionaire at Miami International Airport (MIA). On November 3, 2005, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners formally approved the decision of the Evaluation Team. In operating the MIA duty free contract, DFA will partner with two respected Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) firms, namely Concourse Concessions and Siboney Wine & Spirits Merchants. The 10-year contract is expected to commence in January 2006 and will be comprised of 8 duty free stores, growing to 12 stores by 2008 as MIA completes its redevelopment plan. In its business proposal, DFA stated that it expects to significantly grow the duty free business at MIA.

Duty Free Americas - Premier Worldwide Duty Free Shops

US. Duty Free Americas posted a +30% year-on-year rise in sales last year at its three New York JFK Airport locations, thanks to a combination of currency benefits, heavy in-store investment and a sharp rise in passenger numbers.

Duty Free Americas Airports Division President Michael (‘Miki’) Dinar told The Moodie Report: “Traffic was very strong in 2004 and sales were very good because the passengers were willing to spend more because of the difference in the exchange rate [a soft US Dollar versus the Euro and Pound Sterling in particular]. We did over +30% more in sales [last year] than in 2003. The currency helped and of course we had SARS and the Iraq war in 03 but we took full advantage and pushed hard – we had a great year.”

A +30% lift in sales versus a +15% rise in international traffic [across the three New York airports] suggests the retailer must also be doing something right. In Duty Free Americas’ case it invested heavily in the shops during the grim days of 2002 and early 2003. “During 2002 and 03 we upgraded the stores, we put in more sales people, more brands and we put a great marketing plan in place,” said Dinar. “Then when 2004 came and we had the passenger growth and the currency working for us, all our investment kicked in.”

According to just-released figures from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, passenger traffic across JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports jumped +12.2% last year to 93.9 million, beating the previous high of 92.4 million set in 2000 – nine months before the tragic events of September 2001 that were to change the course of US aviation and world history. Encouragingly, international traffic is expected to race past pre-September 11 levels this year.

In 2004, 37.5 million passengers passed through JFK, representing an +18% upswing over 2003 and making it the fastest-growing airport in the region and one of the fastest-growing airports in the US. Newark saw an +8.3% increase, with 31.9 million passengers in 2004. LaGuardia had 24.4 million passengers in 2004, a rise of +8.7%.

The pick-up in passengers at JFK, Newark and LaGuardia was nearly two times the average rate of other major airports in the US. Domestic passenger levels in 2004 were +3.1% higher than pre-September 11 levels. International traffic, which climbed +15% in 2004, is expected to exceed pre-September 11 levels in 2005.

Duty Free Americas Corporate Office in Hollywood, Florida

Duty Free Americas completed the successful relocation of its corporate headquarters to Hollywood, Florida, in November 2003. With the move, DFA now combines into one location its Executive Team with each of its Operational and Administrative Departments. The move is expected to enhance the Company’s ability to fully integrate its operations.

Dulles Duty Free, LLC, (an entity controlled by Duty Free Americas) was selected by the Metropolitan Washington Aviation Administration to be the duty free concessionaire at Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In operating the concession, DFA will partner with Los Angeles–based Concourse Concessions, a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE). The 5-year contract is expected to commence in August 2003 and will be comprised of 5 duty free stores.

On October 11, 2001, a group controlled by Miami-based Simon, Jerome and Leon Falic purchased World Duty Free Americas, Inc. (WDFA) from United Kingdom-based BAA, plc and changed the corporate name to Duty Free Americas, Inc. (DFA). In addition to corporate infrastructure and warehouse facilities, the acquisition included WDFA’s Airport, Northern Border (U.S./Canada) and Southern Border (U.S./Mexico) Divisions, consisting of 86 duty free, news & gift, and specialty retail stores, as well as several gas stations and convenience stores.