Aer Rianta International targets €55 million profits in five years

Duty free specialist Aer Rianta International (ARI) plans to double profits over the next five years to €55 million, according to its chief executive Jack MacGowan.

ARI, a subsidiary of the State-owned Dublin Airport Authority, earned a €27.4 million surplus last year from operating duty free outlets in Europe, Asia and North America.

Mr MacGowan said the company intended to double its profits over the next five years, bringing the figure close to €55 million.

“We have to grow our top line, but what matters is profit,” Mr MacGowan told trade publication The Moodie Report. “We have delivered consistently to our shareholder [the State] and will continue to do so even more in future.”

ARI's profits fell in 2012 from €31.8 million the previous year, but that figure included some once-off items, including the sale of its shareholding in a Russian business. It has sales worldwide of around $1 billion (€740 million) a year. In 2012, €221 million of this came from its Irish operations.

Turnover
According to The Moodie Report, which is due to publish a full interview with Mr MacGowan this month, it is one of the world's top 15 travel retailers by turnover.

ARI was launched in 1988 with the opening of Moscow Duty Free. Last year it made its first foray into the Chinese market when it opened a joint venture in Kunming Chiangshui airport in the southwest of the country.

The Irish company has businesses in Bahrain, Barbados, Canada, India, Kosovo, Russia and Ukraine. It has supply-only contracts with airports in Moscow and St Petersburg. In India it is lead operator in Delhi Duty Free Service.