Duty free retail design by Barber prepares for business in the Philippines

12th August 2015

We were excited to see one of our projects featured in the Travel Retail Business magazine this week as – our duty free retail design project for Duty Free Philippines (DFP) was discussed in detail. The new 11,000 sq m store is due to open in Terminal 3 of Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport in summer 2016.

Duty free in the Philippines

Speaking to TRB Magazine, Merchandising Division Manager at DFP, Jennifer Start described the motivation behind the move:

“We are doing our T3 Fiesta landside arrivals store for brands which couldn’t get into the airport in the past. We will see the entry of more brands here.

“The shop will be on two levels of the terminal building; there’s a temporary store there now. Our T3 Fiesta arrival shop is being designed by Barber of London. We will finalise plans soon. We will open the store in phases. Phase 1 will open about mid-2016; we expect full completion by early 2017.”

Terminal 3 of Manila Ninoy Aquino International

The primary target customer of the store is going to be native Filipino travellers who are returning from abroad – along with Filipino migrant workers who are returning from work overseas, and Start explains how they hope to entice them with a more interesting range of goods than the nearby mall:

“There will be more of a duty free feeling in the T3 Fiesta arrival shop [than at the nearby mall]. We are developing this store so that apart from the traditional offer we can give more space to brands. There will be more fashion, perfume and cosmetics, along with chocolates, liquor and tobacco.

“The T3 Fiesta store will bring them to a bigger shop which offers more and they can bring their families with them. There are still a lot more passengers to serve in the arrival shopping market; there is still a lot more of the arrivals market to penetrate.

“We estimate just 3% to 4% of total [potential] arriving passenger sales are captured now. There is still a lot of improvement possible for arrival sales.”

Manila Airport

This is a very exciting project for Barber and we’ll be sure to keep you posted on the latest developments as they happen – and some pictures of the store once it is open, of course!