Lagardère pumps fresh money into ailing Belgian duty-free shops

French travel retail group Lagardère is increasing the capital of its Belgian subsidiary, which runs duty-free shops at airports. Because of the corona crisis, these shops saw their revenues fall sharply.

Covering losses

According to business newspaper De Tijd, the investment would amount to 25 million euros, of which no less than 19 million would be used to cover the losses of the past two years. The rest will be used to supplement the company’s own capital, which is barely 154,000 euros.

Lagardère Travel Retail Belgium operates some 25 shops at various Belgian airports and at the Brussels-Midi railway station. Among the best-known are luxury food shop Epicure, fashion outlets Fashion Studio and Luxury Hall, and watch store Precious Time. Two years ago, Lagardère, which also runs airport shops in dozens of other countries, took over the duty-free shops at Brussels Airport from NPM, the investment fund owned by Belgian businessman Albert Frère.

Corona

Due to the corona crisis, however, civil aviation had a black year and this was of course also strongly felt in the airport shops. In the middle of last year, Lagardère announced a restructuring, involving the loss of 153 of the 550 jobs in its Belgian branches.

The French parent company recently published deep red figures for 2020. Turnover fell by no less than 60% to 1.7 billion euros, resulting in an operating loss of 353 million euros. The figures for the Belgian branch have not yet been published. However, the fact that 19 million euros are needed to clear the losses, leaves little to the imagination.