World's largest sweet shop to open in Dubai

SWEET SPOT: Candylicious is to open what it calls the world's largest sweet shop in Dubai.

A company is opening what it says will be the world's largest confectionary store in Dubai as it looks to tap demand from the Gulf Arab region's hunger for candy.

Candylicious, which initially opens in one of the world's largest shopping centres, The Dubai Mall, is also planning a second store in Singapore early next year, Sunaina Gill, director of Retail Is Detail, a Singaporean family business in Dubai said.

"We are planning 10-15 stores in the Gulf Arab region over the next 3-5 years, with additional stores to open in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the next 12 months," said Gill.

Dubai, the tourism and trade hub of the Middle East, already has the world's tallest skyscraper and one of the longest driverless train systems globally after investing billions of dollars to propel the emirate on to the international map during a six-year oil-fuelled boom.

Dubai is an ideal place for the store, said Gill, adding there was a gap and sufficient demand in the market for a confectionary store of this type, especially with 30 million visitors a year expected to visit the Dubai Mall.

Gill said the group, which will sell everything from chocolates, soda and popcorn, was aiming for sales of $10 million annually.

In addition to its sweets, the 10,000 square foot store features a huge 10-metre singing chocolate tree decorated with lollipops.

Customers will not need to necessarily have venture into the store to taste the candy. The store will also employ "Candylicious Junior", a car that will circle the mall. (Reuters)

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READERS' COMMENTS

candy store in Dubai
Posted by Ellen James, folkestone, UK on Sunday 25 October 2009 at 13:23 UAE time


I agree, this probably is the largest sweet shop in the world (size wise) however they omit to divulge just how many sweets they have in store. It is well thought out and lots of room to move but how many sweets?? I know of sweet shops in the UK that have literally thousands of different sweets in their small humble shops. There are two of the largest sweet shops in Kent here in Folkestone and Hythe (both the same shop) started with nothing except good business sense and hard graft.........so the question remains is this the largest sweet shop due to the square footage or the amount of different sweets it contains?

Better selection of GOOD QUALITY chocolate required!
Posted by Jay, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 4 October 2009 at 11:37 UAE time


I had a quick look in the store --- 80% of the goods can be bought elsewhere (in a supermarket etc). It's a nice big store, but how about a bigger variety in the chocolates supplied - for example, there is way too much Hershey chocolate (which isn't that good) and no Cadbury's chocolate at all.

Please get some Cadbury's chocolate...then *maybe* you'd get a little bit closer to your sales target ;)

Tough Call But Good Luck
Posted by The Don, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Saturday 3 October 2009 at 09:04 UAE time


With US$ 10 m sales target is going to be a tough call for them to hit (average daily revenue is AED 100,000 or close to AED 8,400 per hour) especially we have to keep in mind that numbers of visitors is concentrated around 2 days in the week which will place greater pressure on the store to achieve the target (another magic, assume they will achieve 20% of daily revenue during the week then they have to achieve AED 300,000 in weekends days).

Anyway good luck for them.

Honest
Posted by John Smith II, Dubai on Saturday 3 October 2009 at 07:23 UAE time


Seriously,

Would love to comment on the below blog which goes on a negative side, lolz. But honestly, I love Dubai, Worlds Biggest everything.

Trust me, the below people who all are commenting to the negative side will be the first in the line to enter the shop, take an example to the Metro.

Guys dont need to take everything negative.

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