Duty-free retailing runs into rough weather

Mumbai: Duty-free shopping at Indian airports, touted as the next big opportunity that would rake in the moolah for retailers, is running into rough weather. The two large contracts for shops in Mumbai and Delhi airports, which between them account for 60% of the international airline traffic, are bogged down in a range of issues between the airport companies and the retailers.
The Mumbai concession, awarded to the Spanish retailer Aldeasa and ITDC early this year, has run aground and is currently being renegotiated. The duo won a three-year mandate to run the duty-free shops in Mumbai, after aggressively bidding Rs 571 crore for the contract.
They were scheduled to start duty-free operations in June this year, but have not yet formed the joint venture company, people close to the development said.
Various issues, largely concerning the infrastructure at the international airport, are now being raised with the airport company Mumbai International Airport (MIAL). The two parties are meeting next week to thrash out issues, sources said.
09/11/07 Kala Vijayraghavan & Cuckoo Paul/Economic times

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Categories: Airports Nov 2007