Extraordinary success in travel retail doesn't happen overnight.
The history of Hudson Group officially began in 1926, when the Hudson News Company was incorporated. The business was actually started by the Cohen Family in 1918, when they first began distributing newspapers in New York/New Jersey area as the Bayonne News Company. Today, Hudson News Company has become one of North America's largest independent wholesalers of periodicals and books.
In 1987, the Hudson Group Retail Division of the Hudson News Company was formed, headed by Mario DiDomizio. The mission of the new division was to fulfill the concession needs of the travel industry, i.e., airports and transportation terminals. The division created and operated newsstands, (including the national newsstand brand Hudson News), bookstores (including Hudson Booksellers), cafes (including the Euro Café brand), along with a wide array of specialty retail concepts (both licensed and proprietary) in major airports and terminals throughout the U.S. and Canada. By 2008, the company was generating nearly $700 million in sales.
In December, 2007, the Cohen Family announced it would sell off a large portion of the Hudson Group retail business to the private equity firm Advent International Corporation. This move combined Hudson with financially solid global partners and created tremendous new opportunities for the company.
In September 2008, Hudson Group took another step forward, when it merged with fellow Advent International portfolio company Dufry AG, (DUFN.SW) of Basel Switzerland, a public corporation founded in 1865 and traded on the Swiss stock exchange. Hudson Group became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dufry AG.
Dufry AG is a highly respected global travel retailer with duty free and duty paid shops located at airports and seaports, aboard cruise ships, and in other tourist locations in countries around the globe. Hudson’s relationship with Dufry exposes it to hundreds of premier international brands and makes it possible to offer a duty-free option to airports in North America.
Hudson operates more than 580 newsstands, bookstores, cafes and premier specialty retail shops in 70 airports and transportation terminals in the United States and Canada. Through its association with Dufry, the Hudson News brand has gone global, with newsstands (convenience stores) opening in airports and transportation terminals throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
At the start of 2010, the combined Dufry/Hudson entity was overseeing more than 1,000 stores in 41 countries and 137 airports and terminals.