April 26, 2024

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Lotte Duty Free said on March 25 that it has opened stores in Australia and New Zealand, making it the first South Korean duty-free operator to make inroads into the Oceanian region.

A ceremony to mark the opening of the tax-exempted retail outlet at Brisbane International Airport was held on Monday (local time), the duty-free arm of Hotel Lotte said.

The 2,795 square-meter outlet has some 600 leading brands in beauty, fragrances, liquor, wine and technology, officials said.

In August 2018, Lotte Duty Free signed an agreement with Melbourne-based JR Duty Free to run four retail outlets in Australia and one in New Zealand.

The stores will be opened in Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin and Melbourne in Australia and Wellington in New Zealand. It will also operate an online shopping service in Auckland and Christchurch in New Zealand.

Lotte Duty Free said the Australian market was estimated at 1.4 trillion won ($1.25 billion) as of last year, with the amount of outbound travelers that use the stores growing by more than 10 percent annually.

It forecast more than 200 billion won in revenue from the Australian business this year.

Lotte Duty Free currently has seven overseas stores in locations, such as Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Guam.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)