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(FILES) A file photo taken on June 7, 2007, shows a Qantas Boeing 707 landing at Sydney International Airport. Hollywood star John Travolta has donated his "beloved" Boeing 707 plane to an Australian aviation museum and is aiming to be part of the crew to deliver the vintage aircraft down under. Made for Qantas Airways in 1964, Travolta acquired the Boeing 707 long after Australia's national carrier retired the jet. / AFP PHOTO / TORSTEN BLACKWOOD
Avolta, a Swiss-based travel retailer, has expanded its investment base to $5m in Nigeria.
The new feat was made known to journalists on Thursday, by the Chief Executive Officer of the company for Middle East and Africa, Abdeslam Agzoul, during the opening ceremony of the new store at the Lagos airport.
The company’s CEO also said the company, which had also committed a lot to staff training, had a plan to keep growing even as Nigeria’s fast-growing passenger traffic improves.
Agzoul noted, “We are very proud to be in the country. We have been here for more than 10 years and during that time we have continually improved our customer experience. We are not just talking about the past; we are here to also look for the future.
“We have started in Lagos and we have another in Abuja. The company has invested over $5m in developing outlets and innovating the outlets.
“We have brought several innovations to our brands. As you can see here, we are very happy and proud of the unveiling of the outlet. This is very good and we can call it a new generation of shops and we are integrating and including technology. We have also invested a lot in training our personnel because the company, Avolta, has a strategy called Destination 2027 and one of its pillars is the evolution of travel retail according to customers’ purposes. This is our aim here.”
According to Agzoul, the firm wants to strengthen its presence in Nigeria and Africa.
“We know Nigeria is one of the top three economies in Africa. So for us, it is an opportunity to expand the business in the airports together with the airport authority, FAAN, to capture the maximum benefit in this magnificent country. We know the airport traffic is growing and we want to be part of the growth and also in the improvement of customer behaviours,” he remarked.
Also, the Director General of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Olubumi Kuku, lauded the company and promised that FAAN would continue to make the airport a business-friendly environment.
He noted that the authority appreciated the standard the company had maintained in the operation of its stores within the Nigerian airports.
“We are happy and excited about what Avolta is doing. Today marks a remarkable day in the journey of FAAN. This duty-free store meets with the international standard and this shows the level of collaboration you are having with FAAN. This will improve the passengers’ experience,” he noted.
The company, which has 5100 outlets across 1000 locations in 73 countries on six continents of the world, was established in Nigeria in 2015.
According to Forbes in May, the company saw its two biggest regions, Europe, Middle East and Africa and North America, drive sales in the first quarter, with the latter breaking $1bn (reaching $1.07bn or 974 billion Swiss francs).
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