CEO of the Week: Dubai airport retail king Colm McLoughlin

Dubai Duty Free (DDF) is a travel retail group that runs shops at the Al Maktoum and Dubai International Airports in addition to a sizable online retail center.

Jewelry, cosmetics, apparel, food, drinks, fashion, technology, and other industries are among those that use their products. With its headquarters located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the company was founded in 1983.

Under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the head of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, is the government-owned Investment Corporation known as DDF. 

DDF was founded in December 1983 and made USD 20 million in its first year of business. From USD 44,000 on the first day of trading in December 1983 to USD 32 million in 1986, DDF sales grew.

In 1987, Arrivals Duty-Free opened to the public and was earning roughly USD 200,000 every day. Dubai Duty Free began offering 1,000 tickets to win a luxury car in 1989 as part of their “Finest Surprise” promotion.

About five million people used the airport in 1990, bringing in USD 95 million, despite the fact that Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait seriously hindered operations.

With USD 202 billion in sales in 2019, the company has grown to become one of the biggest travel retail operators globally. Employees at the various Dubai Duty Free locations have increased since the Sheikh Rashid terminal at Dubai International Airport opened in 2000.

The brain behind this successful venture is 80-year-old Colm McLoughlin, an Irish businessman, and ex-CEO of the company.

Who is Colm McLoughlin?

1. Colm McLoughlin was born in July 1943, in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland. He is a brother of Ray McLoughlin, former Ireland international rugby player
2. In 1960, he went to London to study dentistry, but he began working in retail
3. He worked for Woolworths, an Australian multinational retail and finance company and soon became one of the youngest managers in the company
4. In 1969, he joined Shannon Airport Duty Free, and went on to become general manager of the duty-free operation
5. In 1983, at the request of the Government of Dubai, he joined Dubai Duty Free at Dubai International Airport
6. McLoughlin was the first non-UAE national at the time to receive the Most Distinguished Employee Award from the Dubai Government Excellence Awards in 2000
7. In 2004, he was honored with the Frontier Lifetime Achievement award which was presented by Frontier magazine, making him only the second person after Brendan O’Regan
8. He was also named as one of the 50 Most Influential Expats in the UAE, in a list released by Forbes Middle East Magazine in 2016
9. In 2019, McLoughlin celebrated 50 years in the duty free industry