ATU Duty Free, the Turkey-based joint venture between TAV Airports and Unifree Duty Free, has won out in the competitive bid to operate at five highly significant travel retail locations in Tunisia.
The consortium between ATU Duty Free, Gebr. Heinemann SE & Co. KG and Hamila Duty Free was awarded the contract to operate duty free shops at the five international airports across Tunisia for a period of eight years and two months from November of this year. An offer of €32 million secured the tender, which covers the travel retail operations of Tunis‐Carthage, Djerba‐Zarzis, Sfax‐Thyna, Tozeur‐Nefta and Tabarka‐Ain Draham airports – amounting to a total shop area of 5,406sqm that served eight million passengers last year.
ATU Duty Free already operates four duty free outlets at Tunisia’s Enfidha Hammamet Airport, which collectively served 2.3 million passengers last year. The award of the tender means that for eight years and two months from November, in a consortium with Gebr. Heinemann SE & Co. KG and Hamila Duty Free, it will operate at five more airports in the North African region – at Tunis‐Carthage, Djerba‐Zarzis, Sfax‐Thyna, Tozeur‐Nefta and Tabarka‐Ain Draham.
The ATU-Heinemann-Hamila consortium fended off strong competition from global duty free operators Dufry, Lagardere, World Duty Free Group, Aer Rianta and Flemingo in the aggressive bidding procedure, which included a pre‐qualification stage. ”Winning this tender is very important to us,” said ATU Duty Free General Manager Ersan Arcan. “It marks a major expansion of our operational network in Tunisia, which started in 2009. I believe a key feature of our success was the strength of the consortium itself. We combined with Gebr. Heinemann SE & Co. KG, which is the largest duty free retailer and supplier in Europe, who took the lead in the bid. We also had the opportunity to benefit from valuable insight and support from our other partner, Hamila Duty Free, a strong Tunisian duty operator.”
The rapidly increasing importance of the aviation and tourism industries in Tunisia holds great potential for ATU Duty Free, which already operates four duty free outlets at the country’s largest gateway, Enfidha Hammamet Airport. “Our new Tunisian operation will open the gate of Africa to us, where we believe there are genuine opportunities to increase the scope and scale of our business,” Arcan continued. “Airports are generally the first point of contact with visitors to any country. It is part of our business culture to offer our customers the best welcome possible. Whether in Tunisia or the six other countries where we operate, our main aim is always to create real added value by delivering the best international retail standards as well as featuring and supporting local culture.”
“We are also very proud to continue the process of creating a new generation of jobs for the industry,” he added. “We have done that at Enfidha and, more recently, at Monastir Airport. Our prime focus is to invest in people who we see as the front line to our customer base. Commercial success always follows when there is a genuine understanding of the values of customer service combined with product knowledge. We are very excited indeed over our future in Tunisia and look forward to extending a great welcome and memorable experience to all arriving and departing.”
