Dubai Duty Free's anniversary sales net $21m

Dubai Duty Free has announced that its 29th anniversary sales drive on Thursday netted a total of $21m in revenues for the day.

While company bosses said they were "very happy" with the total, it was $3m down on last year's anniversary when $24m was taken in 131,000 transactions.

Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman of Dubai Duty Free said: "We are very happy to have achieved $21m in a 24-hour period.

"We began introducing a discount offer across a wide range of merchandise on our 20th Anniversary in 2003 and it has become a popular day with travellers."

Perfumes was the highest selling category with over 58,000 bottles sold amounting to $5.6m while watches and clocks came in second place with sales of $4.9m.

Cosmetics came in at third place with sales of $1.9m, the retailer said in a statement.

Other notable increases were seen in electronics, which rose by 23 percent to $1.2m, while in confectionery, which rose by 37 percent, saw 134,000 units sold.

In readiness for the opening of Concourse A in January, Dubai Duty Free said it has recruited more than 1,000 new staff so far this year and will end the year with around 5,200 employees in total

Dubai Duty Free said last month it is looking to achieve double digit sales growth for the year after sales up to the end of October reached AED4.71bn ($1.29bn).

This represented an 11 percent increase over the same period last year, putting the operation on track for year-end sales of an estimated AED6bn.