South Korea’s Lotte Duty Free maintained the third rank in the world duty-free market in terms of sales for two straight years as of last year, but it remains unclear whether it can sustain the rank as it had lost license to run a major operation in southern Seoul.

According to the latest issue of British travel retail magazine Moodie Report, Lotte Duty Free ranked the third in the global tariff-free shop market by recording 3.75 billion euro ($4.7 billion) in sales last year, tagging tightly behind the U.S-based DFS Duty Free with 3.70 billion euro sales. Switzerland-based Dufry topped the list with sales of 5.68 billion euro, firmly securing its leadership since it took over American retailer World Duty Free, then-fifth largest, in 2014.

The Korean travel retailer that became the third best player in 2014 after beating out LS Travel Retail of France was 215 million euro away in sales from the runner-up DFS Duty Free two years ago but the sales gap contracted to only 20 million euro last year. Lotte Duty Free is closely followed by LS Travel Retail that improved its sales by 15 percent on year to 3.57 billion euro in sales last year. The French retailer narrowed its sales gap with Lotte Duty Free to 180 million euro from 435 million euro.

Lotte Duty Free has pledged to become the leader in global travel retail market by 2020. But industry watchers predict it is unlikely for the Korean retailer to beat DFS Duty Free this year and may even slip down the rank as it failed to renew its license for the nation’s third biggest store in Lotte World Tower late 2015. The duty free operator is pitching to win back the license in next month’s government-led auction.

Lotte Duty Free has received multiple whammies, having suffered face-losing prosecution probe for the founding families’ wrongdoings on top of losing license to newcomers.

Shilla Duty Free, a unit of the country’s largest conglomerate Samsung Group, registered 2.29 billion euro in sales last year, stepping up to the sixth from the seventh rank in the same scale.

By Kim Sae-bom

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]