Irish Travel Retailer ARI Delivers A Global Charm Offensive For St. Patrick’s Day

Global travel retailer, Aer Rianta International (ARI) celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by extending ‘céad míle fáilte’ or a hundred thousand welcomes to key members of Ireland’s political elite around the globe over recent days.

The airport retailer, which has stores in multiple markets including Canada, Cyprus, India, Oman, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Ireland, used St. Patrick’s Day to highlight the company’s international footprint and remind consumers of its unique contribution to the global duty-free business.

Trade visits to ARI stores abroad were made by leading politicians during the annual week of celebrations for the Irish diaspora in the build up to St. Patrick’s Day, today.

Green attire and shamrocks—the three-leaved clover said to have been used by the Irish patron saint as a metaphor for the Holy Trinity—were in evidence across many cities including parades in London today, and New York on Saturday. An estimated two million turned out for the NYC event, now it its 263^rd year.

Irish soft power

ARI, the retail arm of state-owned daa (Dublin Airport Authority), hosted VIPs at various locations. They included Tánaiste Micheál Martin, a lawmaker in the lower house of the Irish parliament, at Montreal Duty Free in Montréal–Trudeau International Airport in Canada; Simon Coveney, Ireland’s minister for enterprise, trade, and employment traveled to Delhi Duty Free in Indira Gandhi International Airport in India; and Seán Ó Fearghaíl, the chairperson of the lower house of the Irish parliament who was welcomed at Portugal Duty Free in Lisbon Airport.

Ray Hernan, CEO of ARI, commented: “We are delighted to see ARI continue to prosper and expand and we wish a very joyous St Patrick’s Day to all. Slainte.” ARI has good reason to celebrate; it was the pioneer of duty-free retailing having opened the first duty-free shop in the world at Shannon Airport in Ireland in 1947 (see top image). From a small kiosk, the company now has a presence across 27 cities in 13 countries worldwide and is the top international travel retailer in the Middle East.

Daa’s international retail, consultancy, and management business, operated through ARI and daa International (daaI), has been growing. In the first half of 2023 (ending June 2023) combined revenue hit €121.7 million ($132 million) an increase of 49% on the same period in the year prior as passenger volumes rose after the impact of the pandemic.

Unrivaled Middle East impact

But ARI’s legacy goes deeper because it was a team from the company that developed the first duty-free operation at Dubai Airport in the early 1980s. From then until today, former ARI executive Colm McLoughlin—who had been general manager at the Freeport Shop (as it was called then) in Shannon Airport in the mid-1970s—has become one of the leading lights of Ireland’s diaspora. He transformed the operations of Dubai Duty Free and is the company’s current CEO.

Last year, Dubai Duty Free’s sales hit a record $2.16 billion. In McLoughlin’s recent biography, A Life Well Spent, trade between Ireland and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) has reportedly gone from almost nothing in the early eighties to €5.3 billion in 2021. According to the book, former Irish ambassador Pat Hennessy affirmed how McLoughlin and Dubai Duty Free have been crucial to this still-expanding geopolitical partnership.

Meanwhile, under Hernan’s stewardship, ARI has also widened its reach. In January, the company extended its North American operations with the launch of a new store at Edmonton Airport in Canada where it is now operating the duty-free concessions in partnership with Marshall Retail Group, a WHSmith company.

The retailer’s futurist new stores at Abu Dhabi’s new Terminal A have also been turning heads. Each of the retail operations covering the beauty, jewelry, and sunglasses categories have distinct design cues, notable the Gem & I jewelry offering (pictured above) where Swarovski is prominent. International and well-known local brands including Spain’s PDPaola, and Authur, exclusive to ARI in the region, are also present.