Saudi-based Savola Group, one of the largest retail groups in the Middle East, has opened its first hypermarket outside Saudi Arabia, in Dubai’s Festival City development, as part of an ambitious plan to become the biggest supermarket group in the GCC.
The HyperPanda outlet, which is staffed by some 450 people, is a 175,000 sq ft hypermarket with extensive electronics and clothes sections. It has the largest selection of fresh foods in the UAE and is also the first hypermarket in the country to feature an in-store healthcare centre.
Dr. Mohammad Amin Kashgari, president of Savola Group’s retail division, said the Dubai store is part of a two-pronged growth plan aimed at making the group become the number-one retailer in the Middle East and North Africa by 2010. To achieve this, Savola will have to double the number of its supermarkets from 50 to 100, and increase its hypermarkets from 5 to 25 stores by 2010.
“We are currently the largest nationwide supermarket chain in KSA,” Kashgari said. “We are now looking to expand HyperPanda in the Kingdom from five to twenty hypermarkets in the next five years. Based on strategic expansion plan that will see our retail operations on a parallel expansion mode internally and regionally.
“Internationally, we are going to expand more in the United Arab Emirates, and in the GCC countries in the coming years and also we will be looking very carefully into the high potential market in North Africa as well the Middle East.”He added that HyperPanda has followed a plan of mastering its operations in Saudi Arabia, before moving outwards into other GCC countries.
HyperPanda’s chief operating officer for international retail, Jean-Marie Teyssedre, added that he is confident the chain can replicate the success of its Saudi Arabian operations in the UAE. “HyperPanda has already proved to be a market leader in Saudi Arabia by offering consumers a better alternative in terms of product choices,” he said.
“We studied the market dynamics thoroughly and have adapted our offerings accordingly to fit the needs of UAE consumers and give them an easy and shopping-friendly experience,” he added.
“With value-added features such as the first healthcare centre in a hypermarket in the UAE, and a strong electronics department, we hope to quickly make an impact.”
Teyssedre added that the new store, which is close to Carrefour’s Deira City Centre store, differentiates itself from rival hypermarkets in the city through its focus on fresh foods and its electronics department. “We are famous for the quality of our fresh offering and I think we have one of the best fresh food departments in Dubai,” he said.
“We have a very strong electronic department in our store. We are the first to have a health and beauty centre in a hypermarket […] and we will try to have the best price to win more customers everyday. I think when they have visited HyperPanda, they will be surprised.”
HyperPanda joins other major retailers at Festival City, including Plug-Ins ElectroniX, the largest ACE Hardware and garden centre outside the USA, and the UAE’s largest IKEA store.Furthermore, the Savola Group is not the only player in the region’s hypermarket sector to be staging ambitious expansion plans.
At the start of the year, Carrefour, the world’s second largest supermarket group after Wal-Mart, announced plans to open 18 more stores in Saudi Arabia within the next few years. Despite this, Saudi Hypermarkets LLC, which runs Carrefour in Saudi Arabia, failed to confirm a time frame on its expansion plans.
The Savola Group is one of the largest business groups in the Middle East with more than 9,000 employees. It is one of the top 10 companies in Saudi Arabia, with interests in oil and sugar refinery, packaging and retail operations. Savola Group began as an edible oil refinery back in 1979 with a capital of SR 40 Million.
Today, it has grown to become one of the largest diversified groups in MENA with a capitalisation of SR3 billion and operating in six high-growth industries in various parts of the region.
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