Dubai Emirati luxury retailer Mohi-din Bin Hendi, owner of BinHendi Enterprises, has recently brought another high-end brand to the UAE.
Billionaire, an Italian fashion boutique for men, opened at Dubai Mall earlier this month. Gulf News talks with Bin Hendi about the opening of the new store, his expansion plans and the retail business in general.
Gulf News: Why did you decide to bring the Billionaire brand to the Middle East?
Mohi-din Bin Hendi: I am not a brand collector. My idea is not to collect brands and say that I have a hundred brands. I collect the brands that fit my portfolio. I am on the higher end of the market. We're in the luxury business. If I lower my standard in choosing my product, then I will be competing with 2,000 other people. When I put my standard up, then my competitors will be maximum four or five. When you're in the niche market, then you have four or five competitors.
I saw Billionaire being sold in Harrods and I thought their product was very unique and very upmarket. Billionaire is a product that is bought by a person who likes to be different and who likes to wear expensive and quality clothes.
This is the first one in the Middle East. The next destination for Billionaire will be Abu Dhabi. In Abu Dhabi they're coming up with great malls. It's an important market and we are talking to different people for locations in Abu Dhabi.
How is it going to be different from other high-end stores, especially with many already present in the UAE?
Let me be very frank here. The days of the departmental stores are gone. They're dying in America. We are reviving them here again.
If you look at the retail market in the world, department stores are not as desirable. When you go into a department store, you've got a little bit of everything. People like to go to individual stores and flagship stores where they see products from A to Z. This is my opinion. Flagship stores are more desirable to be visited.
How would you describe the status of the retail business when it comes to luxury brands?I say the branded goods are still selling. There is a need in the market for people to buy presents and give each other anniversary and birthday gifts. So the brands that have been known for a long time might have slowed a little bit but they are selling.
I say this from experience, good brands sell all the time. Yes, there comes a psychology kill effect on people when there is a dive in the economy. Once that is over and you get acclimatised with the situation then your spending goes back to normal. However, business is picking up again.
How much does it cost to open Billionaire? How much before you get your return on this investment?
It's definitely expensive. It's not less than $3 to $4 million (Dh14 million). There are of course a lot of contributors to how fast you get the return on your investment such as location. It would take three to four years and that's normal in this business. I think that's doable.
What are the other expansion plans of the group? Have you decided on the locations?
Well we are working on opening 22 new restaurants here and in Abu Dhabi. At the moment we are targeting the Awards Building [located off the Jumeirah Beach Road]. We have five or six units over there. We were planning on having 100 restaurants by the end of 2010 but because of the financial crisis that came we slowed down. Right now we have 51 restaurants and 22 restaurants are ongoing, so we are down by 30 per cent.
We see if the site is available and if the area is good for our business. With the business plan you need to see if the real estate opportunity is there — if the location is good for your product, otherwise somebody else takes it and you miss the boat. So you always have to be proactive looking for the opportunity.
How do you come up with the concepts for your own local brands such as Cafe Havana, Japengo Cafe and others? When will we see these brands go international?
I am a visionary for the company and if a company doesn't have a visionary person that company goes nowhere. It's rare to hire someone with an imagination.
Everybody you employ is a salary man. I'm always thinking: how will I do it better?
Because of the lack of expertise available in the local market things take a longer time.
We've already created our franchise manuals and everything for Japengo, for example. We have 11 Japengos.
We have one in Oman. We've registered the name all over the world and I guess the next step would be to engage the person we are looking at very soon. We think it will be the jewel in our crown for our food and beverage business.
What advice do you have for young Emiratis who aspire to have their own businesses like you?
They say in China a journey of a million miles starts with the first step. My advice to the new generation to the new upcoming girls and boys is never be afraid of doing what you want to do.
Most of my young life I never took a step back even at times when I didn't have the financial resources.
Business people have to take certain calculated risk. You have to take risk. If you sit and be scared of every risk you can think of you can't go anywhere.
My advice is that you don't need the $10 million to start the business. It's not necessary that you should have a whole bank behind you. You can start small and grow.
They should be bold in their motive. If they think they're good designers then they should pursue being designers. If they're convinced they're good retailers then they should stick to retail. Nothing is impossible.
Do you think this is a good time to start a business?
I think to start a business you have to think of how to maintain your business and take it to a higher level because when the boom hits again, whenever it is, you're there and you're ready to face that. Not when the boom comes you start preparing yourself to being a player in the market.
In English they say if you don't have plan B then you don't have a plan. You should always have a plan B. We learn from people's experience and we shall learn from our mistakes.
Our society is very well constructed and we're very lucky that as soon as the government comes up with a project the public sector is ready to pick it up and run with it. That's a great partnership which doesn't happen very often in many places around the world.
