Global duty free and travel retail company Dufry reported that sales declined by 21.4 percent during the first three months of 2020, including 55.9 in March alone, adding in its trading guidance that revenues in April were off 94.1 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In North America, Dufry sales during Q1 declined by 24 percent compared to the same period in 2019, falling from US$456 million to US$341 million, with duty-free especially impacted due to declines in international and Chinese customers.
In Central and South America, Q1 sales were off 16.3 percent, the company said.
Dufry said it had taken numerous steps to shore up its operations and finances to weather the current disruption, including renegotiating with airports and other travel venues to reduce rents, and reducing costs by making use of government support when possible and implementing voluntary salary reduction schemes.
It also boosted its financial liquidity position by slightly more than US$1 billion through several initiatives, including additional credit lines, the selling of new shares and bonds, and suspending dividends.
In a trading note that accompanied the financial report, Dufry said it is not offering full year guidance, but said, “As expected, the business environment remained tough during April, with travel restrictions in place in most locations. Thus, sales stood at -94.1 percent in April periodic.”
“Looking forward, Dufry has already developed a recovery plan on a location-by-location basis and is ready to resume operations as soon as travel restrictions are lifted,” Julián Díaz, CEO of Dufry Group, said is a statement. “Despite the currently challenging environment, we are strongly convinced that the business will recover as we have seen in previous occasions and we are well prepared to serve customers as soon as circumstances allow.”
