Yesterday the Dufry Casablanca and Marrakesh operations in Morocco were inaugurated, in a celebration hosted by Directors from ONDA (Office National des Aéroports, operator of all airports across Morocco) and Dufry.

ONDA and Dufry have enjoyed a strong partnership for 17 years, with the travel retail company opening its first store in Morocco in Marrakesh airport in 2002. The event was an opportunity to commemorate the fruits of this partnership, the extraordinary expansion of these two airports, and the new stores that form part of the state of the art reformation that ONDA has carried out at Casablanca and Marrakesh airports over the last few years.

In total, Dufry operates 26 stores in eight airports across Morocco including the subject of today’s celebrations; nine stores at Morocco’s largest airport - Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport - and four stores at Marrakesh Menara Airport. The duty-free stores at these airports are operated under the names Casablanca Duty Free and Marrakesh Duty Free respectively, and the company operates four Hudson stores across these two airports.

In line with Dufry’s strategy, the duty-free stores offer passengers a range of brands of international prestige, while maintaining the spirit and local flavour of Morocco in the airport environment.

In both airports, the main duty-free store is designed as walk-through concept located straight after security with the passenger flow leading travellers through Dufry’s retail offer, before continuing through the airside terminal.

The main departures stores are designed to be light, spacious and evocative of the admired Moroccan trellis pattern, that weaves through the design of the shops. 

In contrast with the traditional aspects of the store design are the digital aspects of the customer journey, such as the availability of Dufry’s Reserve & Collect service and RED by Dufry, the company’s loyalty program. In addition to this, ‘digitised’ store staff equipped with sales tablets to give up-to-date and detailed information of the products in store. To enhance the shopping experience further, the duty-free stores in both airports have tasting stations dedicated to showcasing the confectionery products available.

Passengers can find a wide range of products from the traditional duty-free core categories; perfume and cosmetics, liquor, confectionery and tobacco and a variety of local accessories, fashion and beauty products.

Casablanca Duty Free hosts the first multibrand corner dedicated to fashion brands at Casablanca airport, while in Marrakesh, as well as fashion spaces within the main duty-free store, Dufry operates standalone fashion spaces under its specialist store concepts; Atelier,

Attitude, Travel Star, Timebox and Suncatcher, each offering a mix of local and international brands.

Many new brands have been introduced; in the P&C category this includes L’Occitane, Michael Kors, Nuxe, Rituals, Zadig&Voltaire, Zegna and Moroccan beauty brands Jerraflore and marocMaroc, as well as a luxury fragrance corner in Marrakesh, “Haute Parfumerie”. In fashion and accessories, passengers can now find Armani, Bric’s, Calvin Klein, Desigual, Eden Park, Montblanc, Pinko, Samsonite, Superdry, Tommy Hilfiger, Tumi and Victoria’s Secret.

Finally, to complete the retail offer, Dufry’s Hudson stores provide impulse travel convenience, leisure and snacking goods to passengers.

The new store openings are part of ONDA’s renovation and modernisation of Casablanca and Marrakesh airports. These two airports welcomed close to 10 million and more than 5 million passengers respectively in 2018*, with Casablanca airport being the fourth busiest on the African continent.

Pedro Castro, Division CEO Southern Europe & Africa, Dufry said in his speech: “We wanted the Marrakesh Duty Free and Casablanca Duty Free spaces to be inviting to passengers and an enjoyable part of their airport experience. We worked closely with ONDA to create seamless walk-through concept stores, located straight after security. Both of the main departures stores are designed to be light, spacious and evocative of Morocco. At Dufry we are delighted with these stores and the outcome of our partnership with ONDA. I would like to personally thank ONDA management for the trust they have placed in Dufry and the time and dedication spent with us to create what we believe is a fantastic commercial offer for passengers”.

M. Hamid Mokadem, Directeur du Pôle Exploitation Aéroportuaire [Director of the Airport Operations Division] continued: “This ceremony is an opportunity to remember our successful partnership with Dufry. We are delighted with the success of this win-win partnership.

In these two airports, the two spaces were set up following extremely demanding international calls for tender to choose a Duty Free operator who offers the best concept for the development and operation of walkthrough stores. The proposed concepts were in harmony with our vision of modernizing these covetable spaces that are the airports”.

*Official figures published by ONDA