Vinmonopolet in talks with Avinor about taking over duty-free sales

tax free saleTax free sale.Photo: Berit Roald / NTB scanpix

For several months, Vinmonopolet (The Wine Monopoly) has been in talks with Avinor about taking over duty-free sales of alcohol at airports.

This is the first time the parties have held formal talks about a possible takeover. According to Aftenposten newspaper, Vinmonopolet are confident, and believe the process will lead to Avinor’s acquisition of Travel Retail Norway (TRN, who are today’s operator) when when the current license expires in 2022.


‘We took the initiative for talks with politicians in connection to this year’s state budget bill, asking the government to investigate the possibility of taking over Vinmonopol. During such a process, it’s important that we collaborate collating facts and assessments,’ said Director of Communications and Marketing, Egil Thompson of Avinor.


Arbeiderpartiet (Labour – AP), Senterpartiet (SP), The Christian Democratic Party (KrF), and the Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV) have been positive about the proposed take-over of duty-free sales. Høyre and Fremskrittspartiet (Frp) have opposed it.


Managing Director of Travel Retail Norway, Håkon Fjeld-Hansen, believes it would be a bad solution for the state to take over.


‘We’ve been running the tax-free business for many years, and think it would be beneficial for anyone with a commercial imperative. If there’s an open bid, we’ll be in that competition’, he said.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today