Flemingo International, parent company of Flemingo Duty Free Sri Lanka is one of the fastest growing travel retail and duty free operators in the world. Flemingo is currently present in over 34 countries with around 150 operations, with a focus on emerging markets. Today, Flemingo is present in 34 countries with over 150 operations in Asia, Africa, Europe and LATIN America

Flemingo operates across different formats such as duty free shops in airports, cruise ships, borders, downtown, seaports; UN commissary shops, diplomatic duty free in addition to inflight supply as well as convenience stores, food & beverage and luxury retail outlets at airports.

Flemingo International is a Dubai based global duty free and travel retail operator with a focus on emerging markets and a vision to achieve $2billion sales by 2020. Nearly two decades ago, realising the potential in the trade routes between East Africa and the Middle East, Flemingo opened its first outlet in Africa and its distribution business in Dubai. This was followed by further expansion in Africa. In 2003, Flemingo entered Asia with its first outlet in India.he company also manages the Mumbai duty free, the largest duty free in the country covering an area of 50,000 Sq Ft along with its partner DFS. The JV also has fashion and accessory shops in Delhi. In 2010, Flemingo acquired Baltona and entered the European region followed by the acquisition of Iris Ekspres, the Turkey based In-flight duty free operator. In 2013, Flemingo acquired Chacalli-De Decker, a specialist in the supply of duty and tax free goods to diplomats, UN organisations and military missions. In 2014, Harding Retail became part of the Flemingo group.

Flemingo Duty Free commenced operations at the Bandaranaike International Airport in November, 2011 and since inception, Flemingo has been working with leading suppliers and partners to bring in exciting promotions and offers to its customers. With the launch of Flemingo in Sri Lanka, duty free retail got a face lift and has undergone a huge transformation. The quality of retail, fit outs, furniture and last but not least customer service improved tremendously which resulted in an overall improvement of the Sri Lankan duty free complex with the other operators too refurbishing their shops to keep up with Flemingo’s standards.

Given Flemingo’s experience in the Indian Subcontinent region, they have a thorough understanding of the market, trends and customer profiles. “Flemingo understands the need for luxury brands and product lines and also the need for variety for the customer to choose from, and with this in mind we pioneered the listing of many luxury brands and product lines in Sri Lanka thus giving the discerning customer a variety to choose from”, said Flemingo’s Chief Operating Officer- Asia P.K Thimmayya.

Flemingo , through its innovative campaigns and exciting consumer promotions have been able to engage well with passengers and have built up a reputation of coming up with the best duty free offers in the region, thereby enhancing the image of the Colombo airport as a favourabe duty free destination. Thimmayya stressed the fact that customer delight and satisfaction were paramount to Flemingo and he said they would endeavor on a continuous basis to offer the best deals and promotions within the region. “One of the main marketing objectives is to ensure that there are continuous promotions planned through the year across categories thus ensuring continuous innovation and excitement on the shop floor”.

In the recent past Flemingo has introduced many exciting promotions and tied up with leading industry / non-industry partners, availing customers of exciting and unbeatable offers . The first A promotion in partnership with Diageo resulted in a mega prize of 500 gms gold for the lucky winner, while white goods, cars, electronic products such as Apple Phones, laptops, Samsung smartphones, Travel vouchers, etc, have also been given away . In fact recently Flemingo gave away US $5000 travel voucher to one of their lucky customers. Yet another popular promotion launched was with Pernod Ricard where luxury branded watches such a Rolex and Omega, travel vouchers, LED curve TVs , etc were given away to several lucky winners. Similar promotions with popular confectionery brands Nestle and Toblerone where Scooties, phones, gold, TVs, etc were given away were also conducted.
Apart from these, Flemingo has partnered with payment gateways to offer its customers special deals and also implement exciting raffle draw promotions specifically for them. To this effect, Flemingo has in the last five years tied up with Master Card, VISA , NTB and recently with Unionpay to offer discounts to their cardholders.
Understanding the need for continuous innovation, Flemingo has also tied up with Sri Lankan Airlines to offer special deals to their loyalty program Flysmiles members and offer double miles for their purchases in Flemingo stores during peak season such as December.

Another key marketing objective of Flemingo is to retain and build loyalty with their existing customers. To this effect, Flemingo launched its loyalty program “Flemingo Privilege” with the objective of adding value to travel & giving an exciting shopping experience for the frequent travelers. Flemingo Privilege which was launched in June 2015 for the first time in Sri Lankan travel retail history has now over 15500 loyalty members. As a member, customers can accrue points on every purchase and redeem those points as well. To make it more exciting, Flemingo also regularly implements in store promotions such as double / triple points on certain products, special offers for loyalty members and instant gratification for every purchase by way of discounts, etc.

“ We understand that customers’ loyalty is a privilege, hence we continuously work towards making our programs exciting and rewarding. Flemingo has dedicated staff on the shop floor to assist privilege members and make their shopping hassle free as well as a customer hotline number for loyalty members to call, while a dedicated backend customer service team to handle all the queries and feedback is also at hand.

Flemingo has also invested very heavily in staff training and development and ensures at least 60 man hour of training per staff member. Some of the training programs that have been conducted are category, brand and product training, retail skills training, language training such as Mandarin, etc thus providing the staff with capabilities and skill sets for career progression and development.

Flemingo’s CSR arm Flemingo Foundation has been active in Sri Lanka since 2013. Flemingo launched “Educate to Protect”, an educational and humanitarian mission to raise awareness amongst Sri Lankan school children, as well as their parents and educators, against silent child abuse, and provide them with a “1929” Emergency Call Number facilitated in coordination with the Child Protection Authority of Sri Lanka. The program was incepted back in September 2013, and ran until 2015 . It successfully reached more than 26,000 children and 6000 parents and educators. Some of the program’s milestones are

For the year 2016, Flemingo is now looking at a partnership with a Music Project which will be announced soon.
The Flamingo success has been its ability to stay local as it grows increasingly global. They ensure local culture, knowledge, sentiments and people are part of the operations. As Thimmaya proudly stated."We don't believe in half measures ,once in a country- be it big or small , are committed to customer delight and engagement and have made huge investments in improving retail theatre and focusing on highly visible promotional activities.. Innovation in customer interaction and engagement is an important focus with Flemingo. Latest technology is used to ensure speedy and efficient check outs keeping in mind consumer convenience and comfort.