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Colm McLoughlin is one of those people you could talk to for hours. Humble, friendly, and bursting with tales of old Dubai, he is amongst the most interesting and likeable businessmen in the UAE today. Sat behind his desk in the rustic Duty Free offices, adorned with old photos, he explains how he became chief executive of the world’s largest duty free operation. He says that Dubai, which was a very different place then, was in need of a duty free operation in order to increase airport revenues and promote the country. “The Dubai government through the department of civil aviation did a contract with the Irish civil aviation to set up as duty free here for them, and I came here as part of the team of 10 people,” he says. “Right at the beginning, HH Sheikh Mohammed, who was the defence minister at that time, knew he wanted Dubai Duty Free (DDF) to be the best in the world.”
Irish-born McLoughlin was, of course, only young when he made his move to the Gulf state. Previously employed as general manager for Shannon airport in Ireland, he only expected to stay for half a year. “I came here for six months,” he says, “and that six month term is now 28 years.”
In a bid to show how much DDF has changed during the period, McLoughlin has two sets of figures at the ready. In 1984 (the firm’s first year of operation), DDF made AED70m in revenues, had 100 staff and saw just 3.5m people through the airport. Last year, it took AED4.6bn, had 4000 staff and saw 51m passengers travel through. Asked how it feels to be at the helm of the company’s booming operations, and how his job has changed over the years, McLoughlin says it’s not really much different from before. “I claim that in the 28 years I’ve been here, I have never been promoted,” he says. “My title changed a few times, but it’s the same job.”
What has changed for McLoughlin, and for the rest of the team, are the kinds of challenges DDF has had to deal with. In the beginning, major obstacles for the team included the lack of tourism and infrastructure, and the task of getting to know the Middle East and the way that business is done here. “It was challenging [when we first started]. We were the first people in this region to do a duty free in that sort of style, and tourist numbers were very small,” McLoughlin explains. “Prior to [duty free] there were a number of small souvenir concession shops, and alcohol was sold through a hatch in the wall.”
He adds how, at that time, many of the companies, buildings and attractions which today work alongside DDF to attract tourism, did not exist. “Back then we were one of the very few [companies]. Emirates still hadn’t been born, there was no Nakheel, there was no Emaar, there was no Metro, there was no Palm Jumeirah, and there was no eight-lane highway.” Today of course, with a spate of tourists transiting through or holidaying to Dubai every day, not to mention a well established collection of duty free shops and a vast amount of modern infrastructure in the city, DDF is more concerned with issues such as security and baggage weight. “Security has become an issue at [all] airports over the last number of years,” McLoughlin says. “Because of security we have to pack alcohol into a box and load it as cargo on the airplanes if people are going to New Zealand or Australia.”
As for weight restrictions, McLoughlin says this impacts the amount of hand baggage passengers can take on planes, which in turn can deter people from spending in duty free shops. “There is always talk about weight on airplanes, and that is always a consideration,” he says. “As an example, if you go into Europe and you’re travelling with Ryanair and have a shopping bag from duty free, [the airline] will take that as your hand baggage, so they’re restricting people [from buying].” At the same time, certain products in DDF may also come under threat in the future, in view of changes to lifestyle choices. “There is always ongoing discussion among the World Health Organisation (WHO) about the sale of tobacco. In our case, cigarettes account for between 9 and 10 percent of total sales, so if ever there was a rule not to sell cigarettes it would be a business problem.”
CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THE INTERVIEW
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FEATURED COMMENT
Thanks to the previous influx of Russian tourists, and now the Chinese tourists ("toursits" read between the lines), DDF