Dubai Eye 103.8’s Post

Transcript

Yeah, the iconic sounds of Dubai Duty Free. Who knew that their own song? Well, that's exactly what they have. And the managing director of Dubai Duty Free is Ramesh Kidambi, who's been kind enough to join us live in studio. The best of the holiday season to your mesh. Thanks so much indeed for joining us. Thank you very much, Tom. It's fantastic to be here and it's becoming a tradition for us to be here on 20th of December morning, the day we celebrate our anniversary. Today is our 41st year, 41st anniversary. We also give a discount to all the passengers using the airport of 25% and it's a fantastic day for the staff, for all of us. We. Cupcakes in each and every concourse. So we'll put on over 2 kilos I think by the end of the day. Nothing wrong with that. It's great to be here. There is this the circle of non judgment here on a day like this. Happy anniversary to you and all the team at Dubai Duty 3 December the 20th, obviously a an auspicious day, not just in the earth at household but also the Dubai Duty Free Household as well. So how do you celebrate on a day like this? So we visit the different concourses. We have a huge cake in each concourse. We try and meet as many of our employees as we can and we just have a festive atmosphere in the shop while we are serving the passengers. We think we'll have about 290,000 passengers go to the airport today, so we'll try and balance the celebration and the service. It's the perfect storm today isn't it? We've heard from Paul Griffiths and from Emirates and they're saying Friday is going to be the day and just so happens is your 40th anniversary and you've got the sale as well. A lot of people will be asking 25. Percent of we traditionally do it on the 28th of December and it gives people an opportunity to shop for the festive season and get a big discount when they do it. And hopefully I have a smile on their faces. My colleague is flying at 4:00 AM tomorrow morning. He's wondering if you could extend by at least 45 minutes or so. Yeah, we could extend by a couple of hours. You know, I'll take an executive decision on air to extend it to 2:00 AM. Happy days that you the the influence Richard Dean. Listen, let's talk about the year if we can. Ramesh, let's take an opportunity because yeah, a day of celebration today, but you should be celebrating your numbers as well. Talk to us about sales. Yeah, the numbers have been fantastic this month. You know we are on track to about to doing about 800 million dirhams and we are on track for the full year to do 7.8 plus billion. You know we think we'll finish up at about 7.885. Was 7.890, maybe a couple of million dirhams more than last year which was 7885 or a couple of million dirhams less than last year. But we are very, very close to last year's numbers, $2.15 billion in dollar terms and we have already exceeded the $2 billion number. So there's been a very good year and a very good month so far. We are even with last December and and last December was a record month for us and last year was a record year for us. So you might just pip. Record of it might just be understood by a couple of million and and today is really an opportunity to thank the entire team for what they do, working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, working on social hours, being there when everyone else is celebrating. So we are very thankful to the team and I'm especially thankful to our chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. He is a fantastic boss and it's only because of his support to us as an organization that we are able to do. The things that we do in in terms of the team at the moment and I know that your predecessor column, I know that you and all that you're, you're very keen on reiterating team, team, team. Yes. And obviously team took his you know during COVID etcetera. Where are we at in terms of staffing at the we have exceeded the pre COVID number. We are at about 6030 employees at the moment. So, so we have back at full strength because the airport is also back at full passenger numbers this year the airport will do 91. And for a million and in pre COVID it did 88 and a half million in 2019. So we are completely back Tom in terms of strength and we brought back more than 75% of the employees who left us during COVID. And and about 350 employees found other jobs, you know, after they left Dubai duty free and they didn't come back. But we bought back the majority of the employees. So we are on in terms of the management team itself, the team is smaller. You know, we had eight of us in the senior executive team, but we also recruited 8 senior managers, seven of them Emiratis during the course of the year. So we are constantly looking at strengthening both the management team and the frontline employees. And next year we hope to recruit about 350 employees more, but we'll also lose some employees because of resignations. 2024 significant year, not just because the sales as you mentioned there, not just because of the, the team that you've built as well, but also a major. Ranges at senior management level, yourself coming into the role and of course the tragic concern is the loss of the great Colin McLaughlin. I mean, kudos to the whole Dubai Duty Free team yourself as well for navigating what could have been a very difficult year, but turning it into a very successful. Yeah, it was a tough year. And I would say the last six months were one of the toughest for all of us, you know, both in terms of the challenges with the trading and the passengers. Spend was going down, the number of people shopping was going down in May, June. July, so we arrested a bit of that, you know, brought situation back on track a little bit by October, November and now in December. So from a trading point of view, it was tough. Losing column was tough. Like this morning when you wake up, you know he you know, you think of him, you think of him doing the Jingle, you think of him and you see the fly by Dubai tagline. So so that was a tough thing and doing the changes that were needed and recruiting the new senior managers. So All in all, it was a tough. Six months, but I'm very happy at where we stand today, Tom, alright. And what the team has done in the last six months. I should be very proud and happy with with where you're at. And now, of course, no rest for the wicked because we turn our attention to 2025. What what's in the pipeline? What's in the concourse for 25 and 25 and 26? We have a fantastic slate of renovations and refurbishments. We'll have a new perfumes and cosmetics offer in Concourse A. We'll have a new Louis Vuitton boutique in Concourse in in 26. We'll have a new Chanel boutique and completely renovated. We'll have a new Cartier boutique next year in Concourse will between next year and the year after. We have a new watcher shop in Concourse B, luxury watcher shop, a new electronic shop in in Concourse B. And we also finished the renovation of the arrival shops in Terminal 1-2 and three. We've already done half of them and you might have seen it when you land in T1 or T2 or T3, but we'll finish the the. Renovation. So a lot of renovation and refurbishment over the next 18 months and a lot of emphasis on staff productivity. Controlling costs because the passenger growth term in the next year will be let's say a couple of million, no 99293 million passengers next year. So the job of myself and the entire team is how can you get more spend per passenger, How can you get more passengers to shop and how can you keep your costs low because we want to increase the overall. Benefit to the owners, to the government of Dubai, you know, in an environment where the passengers are not growing double digit and looking forward to it, as I'm sure you are as well. Hopefully you can get at least half a day off before then. Ramesh, who knows, seems to be busy, busy, busy. I can't thank you enough for for all your support for coming on in what has been a difficult year to you, to Sinead, to all the team for coming in and sharing your thoughts. Umm, you mentioned that you know, it is something of a tradition that you come in on your anniversary. Speak to us is something of a Christmas tradition. It's there for a tradition for us to ask the managing director of Dubai Duty Free on the occasion of their anniversary. If a colleague of mine is coming through duty three with 500 dirhams to spend a little later on, Where's the best place to go for the best deal? Perfumes and confectionery. Die. OK, that's fine. Sure. The sweet smell of success, the the latest confectionery fat that I heard about yesterday in the Wall Street Journal was a pistachio flavored perfume. So once we have that, you know, Richard, you can do both, you know, get your get your sort of pistachio fix and get a flavor that you like. Pistachio perfume. Got it sorted. Yeah, Christmas is Christmas is sorted. Fresh guidance. Thank you so much indeed. Happy anniversary today. Have a great day. I'll let you get back to the concourse now. Have yourself a great Christmas, great new year as well. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you.