DFDS to operate new duty-free shop at Port of Calais

DFDS has today (30 April 2021) been awarded the tender to operate a new duty-free shop at Calais that will open in October. 

DFDS runs cross-Channel services from Dover to Calais and Dunkirk and has been awarded the tender to run the shop by the port operator, the Port of Calais. The 1,000 square metre shop (equivalent to the size of 35 London buses) will be located in the new port terminal at Calais and will open in October. It is part of the Calais Port 2015 project - a major investment scheme backed by the Nord Pas-de-Calais-Picardie Region, which owns the port, and funded under the European Union priority infrastructure plan.

The new shop at Calais port is one of two new shore-based duty-free shopping experiences that DFDS will offer, with the first due to open at the port of Dunkirk in July. Work has already started to create the new shopping experience at Dunkirk in the port’s main passenger terminal. Work on the new facility at Calais port will begin over the next few weeks.

Filip Hermann, Vice President and Head of BU Channel at DFDS, said: “We’re delighted to win the tender to operate the new duty-free shopping experience at the port of Calais. This will be complemented perfectly by our planned new shop at the port of Dunkirk, which will open in the next few months. Both will offer an exciting new shopping experience for cross-Channel travellers, with convenient access directly from the car lanes at our terminals, making it quick and easy to load up your vehicle with duty-free goods.

“We’ve expanded our duty-free product range to include a host of top electronics brands, a new partnership with LEGO® and a wide variety of premium drinks, cosmetics and fragrance brands. We expect the new shops at Calais and Dunkirk to be very popular, attracting thousands of new cross-Channel shoppers to the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region and boosting the number of passengers travelling for daytrips or short breaks on the Continent, once travel restrictions are lifted later this summer.

“Our investment in these new shops and our continued close collaboration with the port of Calais is a clear statement of our confidence in the resilience and popularity of our cross-Channel services. We’re delighted that this partnership will enable us to create job opportunities in the local areas and offer our passengers a fantastic new shopping experience that isn’t available elsewhere.”