Senior Buyer, Luxury & Accessories

Duty Free Americas, Panama/Miami, 2008-2014

Duty Free Americas, Inc. (DFA) is the largest duty-free operator in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 180 duty-free shops and luxury brand travel retail boutiques.

DFA is divided into two regions; the USA and Latin America.

In the USA, DFA operates 40+ stores in Airports (e.g. Miami, JFK, Dulles, Atlanta, etc.) and also on the borders with Canada (~30 stores) and Mexico (~30 stores). Miami is the flagship of DFA's Airports operations.

In Latin America, DFA has seen major growth with its operations in Brazil, Uruguay, and in the Caribbean, especially in Punta Cana. It also operates in Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, etc.

The group also has operations in Macau and Israel.

I initially was recruited as a fashion buyer to work with DFA's Latin America operations. However, my previous experience with brands present in Airports (e.g. Bvlgari, Hermes) quickly led to responsibilities across the entire network, especially in US Airport and Mexico border stores.

My portfolio included 15 fashion, watches and jewelry brands, from Hermes, Bvlgari, E. Armani to Guess, Fossil or Xoxo.

DFA is a fast expanding company and despite the 2008 crisis that impacted the US operations, the overall business kept growing rapidly. During the 6 years I spent at DFA, I have taken part in more than 30 store openings or renovations. In the same period, I have been able to tremendously grow the size of my portfolio by taking new responsibilities but also by successfully growing my brands in the network. One of the best examples is Guess (incl. accessories & watches) that I grew from $150k to $3M yearly sales.

In 2011, the owners decided to open Luxury Fashion boutiques in Miami Airport. It was a huge deal for a company that was used to managing mostly Fashion Accessories and Watches in Multibrands areas. The four selected brands were Coach, Mont Blanc, Thomas Pink, and Emporio Armani. I was in charge of the latter two.

This implied many internal changes and education to adapt the system and the mindset to multiple SKUs, seasonality, trends and seasonal sales.

These openings were a success, with a particularly nice opening event (we organized a fashion show). Thomas Pink ended up being particularly successful, to the point that the owners decided to open a store in downtown Panama (which I took care of).

Hermes - Miami Airport	Opening Event Emporio Armani - Miami Airport	Victoria's Secret - Punta Cana Airport
Bvlgari - Miami Airport	Tommy Hilfiger - Miami Airport	Emporio Armani - Miami Airport
Thomas Pink - Miami Airport	Atlanta Airport Store	Thomas Pink - NY JFK Airport
NY JFK Airport Terminal 7	Victoria's Secret - Miami Airport	Emporio Armani - Atlanta Airport
Emporio Armani - NY JFK Airport	Thomas Pink - Miami Airport	Guess store - San Andres, Colombia