societ per azioni traded as bit wdf industry retail consumer services founded 2013 2013 headquarters novara italy key people gianmario tondato da ruos chairman eugenio andrades ceo revenue 2 billion 2013 1 number of employees 8 500 website www.worlddutyfreegroup.com world duty free spa the holding company of world duty free group is an italy based multinational travel retailer that employs almost 8 500 people . 2 since 1 october 2013 the company is a constituent of the ftse mib index with the ticker symbol wdf im . contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 1.2 expansion and consolidation 1.3 demerger and listed 2 world duty free group 3 references 4 external links history edit beginnings edit world duty free group was created after the autogrill group the old parent company acquired and integrated the business lines of aldeasa world duty free and alpha group which were complementary in terms of market segment and geographical regions . 3 aldeasa began retailing in spanish airports in 1976 . 4 alpha airport shopping has had a presence in airports in the united kingdom in different guises since the very early days of airport retailing in 1955 5 while world duty free was founded by heathrow airport holdings baa to run tax and duty free operations in all its airports in the united kingdom . expansion and consolidation edit in the decade following the abolition of duty free within the eu in 1999 the three separate businesses aldeasa alpha and world duty free europe were acquired by the italian company autogrill s.p.a. after acquiring aldeasa 50 % in 2005 and the remaining 50 % in 2008 and world duty free europe 2008 autogrill group started a process to integrate them with the alpha group travel retail division acquired in 2007 . 6 this process led to the set up in 2011 of the new world duty free group which controlled all autogrill group s travel retail and duty free business . the company became one global organization in 2011 formed of european airport retailers aldeasa and wdf and the experience in the industry dates back to the 1950s . 7 on september 2013 autogrill completed the transfer of the us travel retail division from hms and its subsidiarie host international to wdfg . 8 demerger and listed edit on 6 june 2013 the shareholders of autogrill approved the project of proportional partial demerger whereby autogrill s.p.a. transferred the travel retail and duty free business to its wholly owned subsidiary world duty free s.p.a. parent company of world duty free group the beneficiary by assigning to the latter the entire shareholding in the group s travel retail and duty free business . 8 on 30 august 2013 world duty free s.p.a. filed an application for the listing of its ordinary shares on the mercato telematico azionario electronic stock market organized and managed by borsa italiana s.p.a. 9 on 1 october 2013 world duty free has listed on the borsa italia in milan marking the culmination of the demerger process from parent group autogrill . 8 world duty free group edit world duty free group operates in more than 550 stores and duty free shops in 20 countries . 10 it is present with a substantial international presence in the european airport retail heartlands of spain and united kingdom and in the middle east north america latin america . 11 in november 2013 world duty free group won the tender to operate 11 stores at helsinki vantaa airport the retailer s first business in the nordic region . thanks to it wdfg operates four duty free and duty paid store including two walkthrough shops offering the core categories of beauty liquor tobacco and confectionery . the group operates around 2 500sq m for the core categories . 12 it also operates seven specialty stores totaling approximately 600sq m focused on luxury product categories . wdfg operations started at helsinki airport in march 2014 . the first of the newly renovated shops will open in 2015 . 13 in november 2014 eugenio andrades was appointed ceo following the announcement of former ceo jos maria palencia s resignation . 14 15 references edit wdfg revenue 11.6 % in early 2014 following transformational year article . frontier magazine . 2014 03 10 . retrieved 2014 05 14 . business channels . world duty free group . retrieved 24 november 2013 . centre for air transport and the environment clients . cate.mmu.ac.uk . retrieved 2014 05 14 . es mucho mas pdf . moodiereport.com . retrieved 2014 05 14 . alpha airports group plc information from . answers.com . retrieved 2014 05 14 . regulation merger procedure case no . comp m. 5123 autogrill world duty free pdf . ec.europa.eu . retrieved 2014 05 14 . newhouse doug 2012 02 28 . world duty free group launches new branding . trbusiness.com . retrieved 2014 05 14 . a b c autogrill spa agl.mi quote . reuters.com . retrieved 2014 05 14 . autogrill the proportional partial demerger project for the travel retail & duty free business was approved . reuters . 2013 06 06 . retrieved 2014 05 14 . world duty free profile . financial times . retrieved 24 november 2013 . where we are . world duty free group . retrieved 2014 05 14 . world duty free group wins helsinki contract . dfnionline.com . retrieved 2014 05 14 . world duty free group makes major nordic breakthrough at helsinki . themoodiereport.com . retrieved 2014 05 14 . http www.dfnionline.com regions global eugenio andrades announced new world duty free group ceo 14 11 2014 http www.reuters.com article 2014 11 14 world duty free ceo results idusl6n0t455820141114 external links edit official website autogrill.com hmshost.com v t e ftse mib companies of italy a2a anima atlantia azimut banca mediolanum banca monte dei paschi di siena banca popolare dell emilia romagna banca popolare di milano banco popolare buzzi unicem campari cnh industrial enel eni exor fca ferrari finecobank finmeccanica generali intesa sanpaolo italcementi luxottica mediaset mediobanca moncler pirelli & c. prysmian saipem salvatore ferragamo snam stmicroelectronics telecom italia tenaris terna ubi banca unicredit unipol unipolsai ynap retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title world duty free & oldid 740676180 categories companies listed on the borsa italianacompanies established in 2013retail companies of italyduty free shops navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages espa olfran aisitaliano edit links this page was last modified on 22 september 2016 at 15 27 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by 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