Dubai: Finally, Sajith Ansar is getting to do what his clients have been doing. The founder and CEO of the branding and business solutions consultancy Spice Holding is launching an food and beverage (F&B) concept in Bahrain and after that will take it to the UAE and India.
Details on what the casual dining concept will be are still under wraps. But the first location in Bahrain will have a generous spread of more than 4,000 square feet and will be managed through a joint venture. However, those for Dubai and India are planned as franchises.
"We have done the concept and fit-outs for more than 65 F&B clients here and elsewhere," said Ansar, whose agency recently conceptualised the ‘Definitely Dubai' campaign for the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
"There were times when we had a good F&B concept design but the delivery from the client's part left a gap. We then realised only if we own every part of the brand can it make a difference."
Also, it was time for the firm, which marked its tenth year of operations yesterday, to make a move into new — yet related — lines.
"What we started with was to be a business solutions firm, but the time had come for us [to] build brands outside the services industry," Ansar said.
"The growth you get in the services industry is organic and then again you cannot grow a pure design firm beyond a point without losing out on quality."
But why have a franchise for the planned restaurant in Dubai? "Once the concept is built, you still need people who are strong in the F&B industry to take it forward," Ansar said.
"All the systems and process will be created by us, what one can call the proof-of-concept."
Apart from F&B, retail is another area that will see Spice Holding getting active. Five lifestyle product stores under the umbrella of ‘Oww!' were launched in India and the network will be padded with more openings, including the UAE. Again, part of the rollout will be through franchising. "We will have mainstream lifestyle and gift products with a sense of humour, and we did see a gap for such products in the mid-priced category," said Ansar. "At least 20 per cent of the merchandise will be designed by us and the rest sourced from designers in the United States, Bangkok and elsewhere."
Both retail and F&B are cash-intensive operations, especially for a new player.
Will Spice Holding seek to encash the goodwill for its core operations and bring in partners at the parent company level? Ansar is not having any of that.
"The core business right through the recession has managed to fund all the ventures," he said.
"The main reason you target partnerships is if you need funds or need to shoot into new markets. But I have not seen the value of getting a partner at the holding level," he said.
"At best we will have select partners, such as for retail in India because it's not an area of strength. In many ways we bucked the trend right from the time we started ten years ago — there were a lot of ad agencies, but not many design or branding firms.
"The positioning we took even then was we were not a boutique company or a graphic design provider, but one offering business solutions. The design part of it is only 20 per cent of the solution. If someone is good with graphic designs, you can create a good looking logo or brochure. We believe we do much more than that."
As well as venturing into new business lines, Spice Holding had done a bit of backward integration as well.
A fit-out centre was set up in Al Quoz to transfer the branding part of it on to the clients' actual commercial space.
Backward integration
As well as venturing into new business lines, Spice Holding had done a bit of backward integration as well.
A fit-out centre was set up in Al Quoz to transfer the branding part of it on to the clients' actual commercial space.
