Dubai Chocolate takes huge 4% bite-size chunk of Dubai Duty Free’s April sales and 40% of confectionery
Speaking on DubaiEye’s Bitesize Business Breakfast Podcast this week, Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi told host Brandy Scott, “The demand is still very strong. We keep thinking it will weaken at some stage but it hasn’t done so far – [we are] still selling a million [Dirhams/US$ 272k]… about 40% of our total confectionery business.”
UAE. The ‘Dubai Chocolate’ phenomenon* shows no sign of slowing at Dubai Duty Free with the sub-category generating an enormous 40% share of total confectionery sales in April and an equally remarkable 4% of the retailer’s total sales.
Speaking on DubaiEye’s Bitesize Business Breakfast Podcast this week, Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Ramesh Cidambi told host Brandy Scott, “The demand is still very strong. We keep thinking it will weaken at some stage but it hasn’t done so far – [we are] still selling a million [Dirhams/US$272k] a day… about 40% of our total confectionery business.”
The achievement is rendered all the more extraordinary by the fact that this was the best April in Dubai Duty Free’s 42-year history, with revenues surging +18% year-on-year to AED713 million (US$195.4 million). The result ranks April 2025 as the fourth-best month on record for the airport retailer since operations began in December 1983.
As reported, confectionery, spurred by the Dubai Chocolate dynamic, continued to demonstrate strong growth in April, generating AED69.5 million (US$19.1 million) in sales, up +84% year-on-year and accounting for 10% of total revenue.
Dubai Chocolate also played a key role in Dubai Duty Free’s strong late 2024 performance, which enabled it to beat all-time annual sales records.
Speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report just after the record was broken on 31 December, Cidambi said a trio of newly introduced Dubai brands – Locali, I Love Dubai and Fix – had turned in star results.
“Confectionery was the real standout,” Cidambi observed. “Sales in the category were up nearly AED14 million (US$3.84 million) compared to last December. In percentage terms that’s around +30%. And nearly all that AED14 million has come from the three Dubai chocolate brands, Locali, I Love Dubai and Fix.
“These three brands didn’t exist last year [2023] – we introduced them in October, November and December. So in December, the three of them collectively added about AED14 million in sales.”
Sales outstrip passenger growth
Speaking about the April 2025 business in general, Cidambi told Scott that while year-on-year comparisons were boosted by Ramadan falling outside April this year [28 February to 29 March compared with 11 March to 9 April in 2024], the encouraging news was that sales growth outstripped the passenger traffic increase.
“What I’m really happy about is that the sales were up +18.5% to UAE703 million as compared to UAE600 million last year in April, but the passenger numbers were up +14%.
“So we did better than the passenger numbers by four and a half percent, which is remarkable considering that last year, since March or April, we have been lagging the passenger growth in terms of sales growth. So we are really happy with the performance.”
As reported, the performance is a timely boost for the travel retailer, whose future structure is under the microscope after the revelation in February that it is exploring opportunities for strategic partnerships to drive growth. Since that time, in-depth conversations have been held with several of the world’s leading travel retailers and other players. 
