Turkish duty-free operator ATÜ is predicting it will increase liquor and wine sales by over a third in 2008 at Istanbul's Atatürk airport.

In December last year AT Ü opened what it claimed was Europe's largest duty-free airport shop at Atatürk. Totalling a massive 2,500 sq m with 540 sq m of this space allocated to wine and spirits ; a smaller 700 sq m shop was also opened with nearly 280 sq m for this category.

ATÜ operations manager Ersan Arcan said the new shops stocked over 240 liquor brands. About 75 per cent of these products are not available in the Turkish domestic market. "Now that we have so much more space allocated to wine and liquor we have started to see the results ," he added. "Sales are up 35 per cent already this year and we expect to keep up this growth rate until the end of the year.

"Our shop's façade is more than 210 metres in length with free access. The shop is designed for limited-time shopping, which means the product categories are indicated clearly and customer service is quick and efficient."

Liquor accounts for nearly a fifth of the retailer's total turnover, with Scotch whisky generating almost 50 per cent of sales.

ATÜ is a joint venture firm comprising two Turkish airport construction companies and Turkish duty-free retailer Unifree, which is controlled by powerful German travel retailer Gebr Heinemann. The company is the sole 

duty-free concessionaire at Istanbul airport.