Retail sales in the UAE received a boost this Eid Al Adha holiday, with sales recording a bigger shopping surge than seen in the last few local holidays, according to one leading retailer.Sales have been hampered by the global economic downturn, with luxury retailers in particular facing the brunt of shoppers shying away from expensive purchases.
The Apparel Group, a retail group with 520 stores worldwide and a franchisee for fashion brands like Aldo and Aeropostle, said that its stores recorded a 20 percent increase in sales over Eid from the previous year.
Nilesh Ved, the chairman of the group told UAE daily The National: “We were surprised that Eid was so big, people were waiting to spend money and they got into the festive mood.”
On the other hand, high end retailers selling gold jewellery and luxury wares saw sales fall by as much as 40 percent in the last year. The local licensees of Hugo Boss and Gianfranco Ferre, BinHendi Enterprises, said that although Eid sales were brisk this year, they were still 10 to 15 percent lower than the levels of last year.
Speaking to the National newspaper, Mohi Din bin Hendi, president of Bin Hendi Enterprises, said: “Last year was unbeatable in terms of figures, but taking into consideration the upheavals in the financial sector, this [Eid] was very good.”
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