Tags
Guy Sauvage: Al Meera CEO
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
Despite the oil price slowdown, Al Meera Consumer Goods Company is expecting continuous growth in the coming years due to its expansion plans within Qatar and Oman.
Speaking to Gulf Times, Al Meera CEO Guy Sauvage noted that they were not directly affected by the oil crisis as a retailer and customers are used to buying food products to feed their families.
Al Meera’s business model is quite strong and has a very low level of expenses, according to Sauvage.
“It means that we can cope with such a crisis, maybe a little bit more easily rather than other industries.”
After opening nine new branches, Al Meera earlier announced that it would establish 14 new stores across Qatar in the coming years. It now has a total of 47 branches, comprising 42 in Qatar and five in Oman.
“For a long time we have been on expansion, it means that our volume is growing and as much as volume is growing, the level of expenses is absorbed and in terms of ratio, is decreased,” he explained.
About expansion plans in the region, Sauvage said the current political and economic situation within the region “is not really very supportive for any expansion” and retailers like them had to be cautious.
“Let us wait for some settlement within the region, crisis or political prospective, and we will see what will happen later on,” he added.
About the response of Qatar and Oman to the oil price slowdown, the CEO noted that there was a huge difference between the countries.
“We need to improve our operations so fortunately up to now we have been able to reach profitability and we are cash positive in Oman,” Sauvage disclosed.
However, he admitted that they still needed to improve, grow and open new stores through organic expansions of new acquisitions.
He also said that next year would be more challenging but expressed confidence that they would benefit from their expansions.
“We have opened 10 malls this year and we have plans to open at least six malls in the coming years so that will help us in Qatar, that will help us to sustain decent level of growth,” he added.
There are no comments.
SPORT Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when you are saying farewell to those that have left a positive impression. That was the case earlier this month when Canada hosted Mexico in a friendly at BC Place stadium in Vancouver.
TECHNOLOGY Some 60mn primary-school-age children have no access to formal education
CULTURE Lekhwiya’s El Arabi scores the equaliser after Tresor is sent off; Tabata, al-Harazi score for QSL champions
ARABIA The Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Dr Mohamed Abdul Majid Qubati, yesterday expressed hope that the 48-hour ceasefire in Yemen declared by the Command of Coalition Forces on Saturday will be maintained in order to lift the siege imposed on Taz City and ease the entry of humanitarian aid to the besieged
ARABIA Some 200 teachers from schools across the country attended Qatar Museum’s (QM) first ever Teachers Council at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) yesterday.
ARABIA The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) of Qatar and the Indonesian Supreme Court (SCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial co-operation, it was announced yesterday.
ECONOMY Sri Lanka is keen on importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar as part of government policy to shift to clean energy, Minister of City Planning and Water Supply Rauff Hakeem has said.
