James Richardson Corporation

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]

James Richardson Group
IndustryFurniture
Real estate
Duty-free retail
Founded1892 (early company)
1955 (merger to form current company)
FoundersJimmy 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
Websitehttp://www.jamesrichardson.com.au/

History

Scottish-born James Richardson (c. 1864–1951) immigrated from Ayrshire to New South Wales in 1886 and worked at the Wentworth Hotel, Sydney before relocating to Melbourne as a barman at Hotel Windsor.[2][3] By July 1916 Richardson was the proprietor of two wine and spirits stores in Melbourne.[4] In 1928 he commissioned the building of the Hotel Alexander, which became the seventh in his hotel chain and along with his four wine and spirit shops made him "the biggest figure in Australia's hotel trade."[5] He sold off five hotels in 1944 and when he died in August 1951 he was "worth approximately £2 million."[5]

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.[6] The company sold this entire operation to Swissair in 1995,[6] 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.[6]

In 2009, JR/Duty Free was awarded one of the available duty-free concessions in Auckland Airport in New Zealand,[7] and purchased the duty-free concession at Wellington International Airport from a rival firm.[6] Both operations commenced in July of that year, and in 2010, another store opened in Christchurch International Airport.[8]

Over the last few years, JR/Duty Free has continued to expand, reopening stores in Cairns Airport in March 2012,[9][10] Perth Airport in November 2013,[11][12] and most recently, Brisbane Airport in September 2014.[13][14]

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.[15]

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.[15]

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 the total sales in Israel today is over 400 million: an increase of about 2,000% in 20 years.[16]

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.[17]

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.[17]

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.[16] 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.[15]

Other

James Richardson has an interest in Tahiti Duty Free located within Fa'a'ā International Airport in Tahiti.

See also

References
  1. "James Richardson PTY Ltd". BDI Code. Archived from the original on 2015-05-19.
  2. Mick Roberts, ed. (14 June 2015). "Hotel useful at 21, dies worth millions". Time Gents: Australian Pub History & Culture. Archived from the original on 8 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  3. "Mr. J. Richardson, Hotel Owner, Dies". The Age (30, 043). 13 August 1951. p. 3. Retrieved 16 July 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Price of Spirits". The Argus (21, 824). 8 July 1916. p. 17. Retrieved 15 July 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Hotel useful at 21, he dies worth millions". The Argus (32, 743). 13 August 1951. p. 1. Retrieved 16 July 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "James Richardson Group Corporate Profile". James Richardson. Archived from the original on 26 May 2010.
  7. "Auckland Airport selects James Richardson as its preferred second duty free operator" (Press release). Auckland Airport. 18 February 2009. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  8. "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.
  9. "Cairns Airport Welcomes JR/Duty Free" (PDF) (Press release). Cairns Airport Pty. 29 February 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2015. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  10. Martin Moodie (16 December 2011). "New walk-through duty free store opens at Cairns Airport". The Moodie Report. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  11. "JR / Duty Free Open for Business" (Press release). Perth Airport Pty. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  12. Dermot Davitt (1 November 2013). "JR Duty Free begins trading at Perth, opens new Arrivals shop". The Moodie Report. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  13. "JR/Duty Free opens its doors at BNE International" (Press release). Brisbane Airport Corporation. 2 September 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  14. Peter Dowling (16 December 2014). "JR/Duty Free officially opens new Brisbane Airport Departures store". The Moodie Report. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  15. Oz Almog (13 April 2009). "נמל התעופה והדיוטי פרי בישראל" [Airports and Duty-free in Israel] (in Hebrew).
  16. "Duty Free James Richardson". JR/Duty Free.
  17. Orna Yafet (11 December 2003). "ג'יימס ריצ'רדסון זכתה במכרז הקוסמטיקה בנתב"ג" [James Richardson wins cosmetics tender in Ben Gurion Airport]. ynet (in Hebrew).
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