Lotte Duty Free wins bid to operate Melborune Airport duty-free shop

Lotte Duty Free, an affiliate of the Lotte Group, won a bid for an Australian airport duty-free shop business, accelerating its move to bolster overseas operations to capitalize on the international reopening of borders.

Lotte said on Wednesday that it will start operating Melbourne Airport duty-free shop in June.

Late last month, Lotte was selected as the preferred bidder in a bid for the Melbourne Airport, beating out five competitors.

Recently, it completed coordination on detailed contract terms for 10 years, until May 2033.

Melbourne Airport's duty-free shop is the second largest after Singapore's Changi Airport branch among Lotte's global airport operations.

Lotte plans to expand the size of the Melbourne Airport branch including departure and entrance space from the current 3,592 square meters to 5,800 square meters in the future and raise its annual sales to 300 billion won ($243.2 million).

The duty-free market in Australia and New Zealand is estimated to be worth 1.3 trillion won before the onset of  COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, Lotte operates 13 overseas duty-free shops, adding one in Australia in May last year and another one in Da Nang in Vietnam in November.

Last year, its overseas sales jumped a whooping 340% year-on-year, reflecting the effect of reopening economic activities.

It will open Changi Airport branch in Singapore in the first half of this year and a downtown branch in Hanoi, Vietnam in the second half of this year.

Write to Mi-Kyoung Lee at capital@hankyung.com