Avolta Overcomes Flat North America Sales As Global Growth Tops 5%

The year-old Club Avolta loyalty scheme now has more than 15 million members.

Avolta

Global travel retailer Avolta, today, downplayed the continuing weakness it is seeing in North America, focusing instead on its solid organic global growth which hit 5.4%* in the nine months to September. This was slightly better than French competitor Lagardère Travel Retail’s 4.4% rise over the same period.

Avolta, the biggest travel retailer in the world and a bellwether for the $74 billion duty-free industry (2024 data), revealed strong advances across all its geographical regions except North America, which was flat (-0.2%). In an investor call, the company stayed focused on its solid financial footing which included multiple consecutive quarters of margin increases; reduced leverage (as a ratio of net debt/core Ebitda); and on maintaining returns to shareholders.

CFO, Yves Gerster told bank analysts that he was “very pleased” with the financial performance and CEO Xavier Rossinyol commented: “Of course, we will have regions or countries that are weaker or stronger, but if we look at the year in its entirety we will be delivering in line with, or ahead of, our outlook.” For the full year, Avolta expects to seen organic growth of 5-7% and it remains committed to a 20-40bps improvement in core Ebitda margin.

In the nine months to September, turnover hit 10.61 billion Swiss francs ($13.3 billion) with core turnover at $13 billion. By region, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) had the best growth of 8.3%, reaching 5.52 billion Swiss francs ($6.9 billion).

The standstill in North America—where Hudson and HMSHost are key subsidiaries—generated 3.07 billion Swiss francs ($3.75 billion) which means that the EMEA business is now almost double that turnover. In other regions, Latin America had a good performance, up 7.4%, and Asia Pacific rose by +5.4%.

North America: a movable feast

Xavier Rossinyol: “If we look at the year in its entirety we will be delivering in line with, or ahead of, our outlook.”

Avolta

The growth trends this year mean that North America’s share of Avolta’s revenue has shrunk to 29.5%% from 32% in 2023, not helped by entrenched weak domestic traffic, as exemplified by IATA's September date.

Commenting on the conditions, Rossinyol, said: “In general across the U.S. in 2025, we’ve seen stronger duty-free, higher item prices, and people with more disposable income have been resilient in the consumption patterns. But we have also seen a specific slowdown at the lower end. In food and beverage (F&B) and convenience retail there is a trend to focus on more affordable products.”

The good news for Avolta is that in October, North America saw a pick-up as growth hit 3%, which Gerster described as an inflection point. Rossinyol elaborated: “In October, in both F&B and convenience across the country there seems to be an inclination to upgrade consumption. It feels that the American consumer is in a slightly better mood and we are monitoring that very carefully as it will have implications for our assortments.”

Avolta has long-terms concessions in the bag

The October rebound bodes well for the rest of the year if it is sustained. In the medium term, North America may well come back strongly anyway due, in large part, to a string of contract wins for Avolta at a single location; New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.

Avolta has secured several long-term concessions at JFK, the latest at American Airlines’ Terminal 8 where the retailer will run the expansive duty-free business there, and has several retail concepts lined up. Rossinyol said: “Terminal 8 is a very big win. Together with the other wins over the year, this will make JFK one of our key locations in North America.”

The CEO said that at JFK some operations would start next year and some in 2027. The first full year when Avolta will have everything, or almost everything, incorporated into its North America accounts will be in 2028 “though positive contributions will start in 2026,” confirmed Rossinyol.

* All percentages are organic unless stated otherwise.