furniture real estate duty free retail founded 1892 early company 1955 merger to form current company founders jimmy richardson early company david mandie modern company headquarters abbotsford australia areas served australasia middle east key people evelyn danos executive chairman milton lasnitzki ceo garry stock duty free chairman number of employees 2 300 website http www.jamesrichardson.com.au the james richardson corporation also going by the name james richardson group or jr group is an australian furniture hospitality real estate and retail corporation headquartered in the abbotsford suburb of melbourne australia . it is privately owned and employs approximately 2 300 people worldwide . it is perhaps best known among consumers for its duty free retail stores in airports and border crossings in australasia and the middle east . the company is a household name in israel due to its duty free stores in terminal 3 of ben gurion airport . 1 contents 1 history 2 duty free retail 2.1 australia and new zealand 2.2 israel 2.3 other 3 references 4 external links history this section is empty . you can help by adding to it . may 2015 duty free retail australia and new zealand eight duty free stores in australia and three in new zealand operate under the trade name jr duty free . seven are located inside international airports and four in major city centres . james richardson first began duty free retailing in australia in 1972 opening a single store at brisbane airport . the company expanded over the next two decades opening further duty free stores in sydney airport melbourne airport perth airport and cairns airport and twenty three stores in all major city centres . 2 the company sold this entire operation to swissair in 1995 2 choosing instead to concentrate on the furniture and textiles business and the company s israeli duty free retail operation . ten years later the company this time trading under its current trade name jr duty free again reentered the australian market opening city centre duty free stores in melbourne perth adelaide and later brisbane and winning a ten year concession to operate at darwin airport from february 2007 . 2 in 2009 jr duty free was awarded one of the available duty free concessions in auckland airport in new zealand 3 and purchased the duty free concession at wellington international airport from a rival firm . 2 both operations commenced in july of that year and in 2010 another store opened in christchurch international airport . 4 over the last few years jr duty free has continued to expand reopening stores in cairns airport in march 2012 5 6 perth airport in november 2013 7 8 and most recently brisbane airport in september 2014 . 9 10 israel james richardson duty free store in the airside rotunda of ben gurion airport terminal 3 israel may 2006 in 1987 the israel airports authority issued a tender for a total area of more than 1 000 square metres of retail space at ben gurion airport . five companies bid for the tender and james richardson was the winner . 11 the company stores in israel officially opened on 14 november 1988 . the company has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the venture including a new store with an 800 square metre cosmetics and perfume area a 300 square metre consumer electronics area a 150 square metre watch store and a 150 square metre fashion area . 11 turnover has increased continuously since the start of operations . total sales in the first year were about 20 million us dollars while in recent years when the total sales in israel today is over 400 million an increase of about 2 000 % in 20 years . 12 there are now eight james richardson duty free stores in terminal 3 of ben gurion airport . in addition james richardson operates duty free stores at the allenby bridge border crossing with jordan the taba border crossing with egypt and operates at the ports of haifa and ashdod including providing supplies for ships crews and warehouses for supplies for un forces and diplomats . 13 the company also operates a store in haifa airport in cruise ships of the israeli cruise line mano and the duty free carts on arkia and israir flights . 13 needs update in 1989 james richardson pioneered a shopping storage and pickup service which led to increased sales and was subsequently adopted by the company in its other stores in australia and new zealand . 12 the service was the brainchild of ze ev sarig then responsible for security at ben gurion airport and later became its managing director . the idea came to him after buying a bottle of whiskey on his way abroad . the service allows passengers to make duty free purchases before leaving the country store them at the airport and receive them upon their return . the service was first implemented in august 1989 and within two months it had already been used by some 8 000 passengers . 11 other james richardson has an interest in tahiti duty free located within fa a international airport in tahiti . citation needed references james richardson pty ltd. . bdi code . a b c d james richardson group corporate profile . james richardson . archived from the original on 26 may 2010 . auckland airport selects james richardson as its preferred second duty free operator press release . auckland airport . 18 february 2009 . retrieved 27 may 2015 . new operators at christchurch airport for foreign exchange duty free and food and beverage pdf press release . christchurch international airport . 6 may 2010 . archived from the original pdf on 6 august 2010 . cairns airport welcomes jr duty free pdf press release . cairns airport pty. 29 february 2012 . retrieved 27 may 2015 . martin moodie 16 december 2011 . new walk through duty free store opens at cairns airport . the moodie report . retrieved 19 may 2015 . jr duty free open for business press release . perth airport pty. 1 november 2013 . retrieved 27 may 2015 . dermot davitt 1 november 2013 . jr duty free begins trading at perth opens new arrivals shop . the moodie report . retrieved 19 may 2015 . jr duty free opens its doors at bne international press release . brisbane airport corporation . 2 september 2014 . retrieved 27 may 2015 . peter dowling 16 december 2014 . jr duty free officially opens new brisbane airport departures store . the moodie report . retrieved 19 may 2015 . a b c oz almog 13 april 2009 . airports and duty free in israel in hebrew . a b duty free james richardson . jr duty free . a b orna yafet 11 december 2003 . james richardson wins cosmetics tender in ben gurion airport . ynet in hebrew . external links company website jr duty free australia jr duty free new zealand jr duty free israel retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title james richardson corporation & oldid 707656368 categories retail companies of australiaretail companies of new zealandretail companies of israelduty free shopshidden categories cs1 hebrew language sources he wikipedia indefinitely semi protected pagesarticles to be expanded from may 2015all articles to be expandedarticles with empty sections from may 2015all articles with empty sectionsarticles using small message boxesvague or ambiguous time from may 2015wikipedia articles in need of updating from may 2015all wikipedia articles in need of updatingall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from september 2015 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read view source 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 edit links this page was last modified on 1 march 2016 at 01 54 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view