Official Opening
Friday, March 8, 2019
Prouds leading
in duty-free,
travel retail
By SHALENDRA PRASAD
(Prouds PNG)
A
s the world marks the
72-years of duty-free
this year, Prouds is not
far behind with this milestone
achievement.
A pioneer operator at the Nadi
International Airport in Fiji since
1971 and the Jackson’s Interna-
tional Airport (in partnership
with CPL Group) in Papua New
Guinea since 2015, Prouds has
been riding on the back of 48-
years of unbroken service in the
duty-free and travel retail sector
effectively positioning itself as a
leading duty-free and travel re-
tailer in the region.
“We have an unbroken re-
cord of 48-years as far as the
duty-free and travel retail is con-
cerned and this segment of our
business has literally evolved
with the tourism sector and eco-
nomic prosperity of our beloved
country and surrounding Pacific
Island countries,” Prouds chair-
man Kirit Patel says.
“We are an integral part of the
world duty-free scene. In the in-
tervening years we have brought
innovation and world class oper-
ations at Nadi Airport duty-free
store so much so that we have re-
ceived four coveted Internation-
al Frontier Marketing Awards as
follows:
n Best New Outlet – 1985
n Best Marketing Award –
1986
n Downtown Border Retailer
of the Year – 1988
n Airport Retailer of the Year
– 1992
“These international awards
are significant recognition of our
duty-free operations,” Patel said.
“Having won numerous
awards and recognitions at an
international stage, I believe we
have an unbroken world record
to be one of the oldest airport
duty-free operators.
“More importantly we have al-
ways presented our offerings to
meet the exacting requirements
of ever changing passenger mix.
This has been the hallmark of
our success, as passenger satis-
faction is of paramount impor-
tance.”
He said the company re-brand-
ed its duty-free operations at
the airport as ‘Prouds’ in 1996
to align the company branding
together with its town/city and
resort stores which were already
trading as Prouds since the 60s.
In 1947, the visionary Irish-
man Dr Brendan O’Regan had
the bold idea to open a shop in
Shannon Airport, in the west of
Ireland, to sell duty free goods
3
to the United States servicemen
and other travellers passing
through the airport.
Seventy-two years on, the in-
dustry O’Regan helped to create
is now worth some US$64 billion,
and is a vital generator of rev-
enues that help improve trans-
port infrastructure, reinvigorate
local economies and generate
employment – not to mention
bring the world’s best brands to
millions of travellers across the
world.
The global campaign to recog-
nize this milestone event is being
spearheaded by Tax Free World
Association (TFWA).
Founded in 1984, TFWA is
the world’s largest duty free and
travel retail association with a
membership of more than 500
companies supplying this global
market.