[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Lotte Duty Free is expanding its overseas business in earnest as the With Corona era begins.
On the 15th, Lotte Duty Free announced that it has opened a store of the luxury jewelry brand 'Tiffany & Co.' at Kansai International Airport in Japan.
The Tiffany store at Lotte Duty Free Kansai Airport, located in Terminal 1 of the Kansai International Airport departure hall, is a standalone boutique-style store with an area of about 90㎡. It underwent a full renovation and reopened yesterday. It is the only Tiffany duty-free store in the Kansai region of Japan, with a business period until September 2023.
This store reflects the latest design concept for the first time among Tiffany duty-free stores in Japan since Tiffany was acquired by the LVMH Group in January. The store interior evokes the Tiffany flagship store located on 5th Avenue in New York, USA, and features artwork by Jean Schlumberger, Tiffany's representative designer and a giant in modern jewelry design. Lotte Duty Free plans to sell Tiffany's new collection 'Tiffany T1' as well as the brand's signature jewelry, watches, and accessories.
To target travelers in the East Asia region, Lotte Duty Free signed a duty-free business contract with Kansai International Airport in June 2014 and opened the Kansai Airport store in September of the same year, becoming the first domestic duty-free company to enter the Japanese duty-free market. Starting with Tory Burch in December 2019, followed by Loewe in January this year, Bulgari, Bottega Veneta, Gucci in June, and Tiffany this month, Lotte Duty Free now operates a total of six boutique-style brand stores at Kansai International Airport.
The annual number of departing passengers at Kansai International Airport was about 12 million in 2019, making it the second largest among Japanese international airports after Narita International Airport. Among the main departing passengers, Japanese number 4 million annually, Chinese 3.25 million, and Koreans 1.5 million.
Jonghwan Lee, Head of Global Business Division at Lotte Duty Free, said, "Lotte Duty Free operates the most luxury brand stores at Kansai International Airport," adding, "We believe that opening the Tiffany boutique store will further strengthen our position in the Kansai region duty-free market."
Meanwhile, Lotte Duty Free recently resumed overseas expansion projects that were suspended due to COVID-19 in preparation for the soon-to-recover global tourism demand. Currently, Lotte Duty Free operates 11 stores in 6 countries overseas and is preparing to open stores in Da Nang, Vietnam, and downtown Sydney, Australia. A Lotte Duty Free official said, "We are comprehensively monitoring local vaccination status and traveler trends to coordinate the opening timing for the Da Nang and Sydney downtown stores."
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