LS Travel Retail Asia Pacific purchases Duty Free Stores Wellington Limited.

A division of the Lagardere Services Group, LS Travel Retail Asia Pacific today announced a 100% share purchase of Duty Free Stores Wellington Ltd (DFSWL). The acquisition will see LS Travel Retail assume responsibility for the duty free operations at Gold Coast and Adelaide airports in Australia, and Queenstown, Dunedin, Hamilton and Rotorua airports in New Zealand (16 points of sales and a turnover of 27 million Aus$). It also includes the company’s successful online duty free business and downtown Hamilton store.

Dag Rasmussen, Chairman and CEO of Lagardere Services said “The purchase of DFSWL is an important and exciting step in our development within the Asia-Pacific. It is a tangible manifestation of our duty free strategy–a commitment that will see us rapidly expand our duty free footprint and capabilities in the region. Added to our existing operations at Noumea Airport, the acquisition of DFSWL is a remarkable platform for growth and an opportunity for us to bring our international standards and approach to duty free retailing to the Pacific and more generally Asia”.

Emmanuel de Place, COO of LS Travel Retail ASPAC explains the importance of the acquisition to the company’s ongoing development “DFSWL is an established, highly successful duty free organization with a strong presence throughout Australia and New Zealand. Our purchase of the company gives us a number of dynamic assets, long-term supply partnerships and perhaps most importantly, a very experienced and dedicated team of duty free specialists in this part of the world”.