The grocer

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Al Falasi will “take hypermarkets to a new level.

Union Coop's GM speaks candidly about opening the world's biggest hypermarket, moving into malls and fighting price hikes.

Khalid Humaid Bin Diban Al Falasi, general manager of Dubai's Union Coop is confident that the retailer is tough enough to stand up to rivals and dodge price hikes in the future.

But can he deliver? In his defensive armoury, Al Falasi has the knowledge that Union Coop is on track to deliver profits after reporting an impressive 28% growth in sales for its stores across the city last year.

He reveals the company, which opened its first store in Satwa in 1984, hopes to open the biggest hypermarket in the world. The store, to be located in Al Barsha, is tipped to open in May next year, and its size will soon be revealed in Retail News Middle East.

Wal-Mart is opening a new store in the US, but we will not know the size of that until the end of this year, so we are aiming to be the largest in the world or the Middle East," he says.

Union has devised a new format, Super Coop, as part of a joint venture with electronics retailer Sharaf DG, and the stores will boast spacious furniture and electronics sections and a supermarket under one roof. The company currently operates eight stores, and three more are set to open within a year.

"We currently have two styles: supermarkets and hypermarkets, but we are going for something new called Super Coops, the first to be located in Al Barsha and Al Muhaisnah. We have not yet chosen a furniture company to work with.

The Super Coop will feature cashier sections on both sides of stores, will be "the only hypermarkets built in that style and located in the middle of the mall, rather than in the corner," and the first will open its doors in October this year.

"Totally different, unique, offering the best prices in the market and the most elegant stores." This is Al Falasi's proposal for the stores under development, and as he leafs through a plethora of blueprints and official documents at his Ras Al Khoor office, his poise is venerable for a man on the verge of steering his business into brand new territory.

The raft of plans illustrates stores featuring striking Italian designs, set to implement state-of-the-art flooring and lighting systems. "There are no other stores here like them, even Spinneys will not be up to these standards. We are taking the hypermarket business to a new level.

Part of that elevation could come from a shift into a broader geographical and selling area, aided by a string of new partnerships. He reveals, "we are now talking about a having a joint venture with another Dubai-based supermarket chain Emirates Co-Op. "We are still negotiating that deal, but the plan is for us to become one coop.

Another extension of the retailer's portfolio will be the roll out of Neighbourhood Malls. Owned by Union Coop, these "smaller malls" will have up to 120 stores.

The existing store in the Jumeirah area has proved to garner the chain's strongest business, and it will open a new branch this month. "We are trying to secure more stores in the area, and shoppers there are by and large a mix of Europeans and locals.

Al Falasi has engineered a strategy for the growth of the company accelerated by local expertise. "We are 33% local in terms of employment, and we are trying to help local businessmen as ideally we would like 50% of our suppliers to be local, so we are assisting them with reduced listing and visibility fees."

Fully locally owned by shareholders in the private sector with all stores carrying the same prices on items, the retailer currently employs an all-local team of top management, while 80% of mid-management are UAE nationals and 30% of low management. "These figures represent the highest localisation in a private company now.

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