Dubai: Inglot, a private Polish cosmetics company, plans to open 12 more stores in the Middle East, bringing the total number of outlets to 50 by the end of the year, Zbigniew Inglot, the company’s chairman of the board of directors, told Gulf News in an interview on Thursday.
Half of the new stores will open in the UAE, including one in Dubai, where there are already six, up to three in Abu Dhabi and more in Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. Inglot, however, did not disclose the name of the shopping malls that will house the new outlets. Elsewhere in the region, Inglot will open up to four stores in Saudi Arabia, besides Kuwait and Qatar.
Dubai is the company’s biggest market in the region, accounting for 50 per cent of regional sales, followed by Abu Dhabi.
Inglot has 480 stores in 60 countries. It aims to have 200 stores open in the Middle East by 2020.
The size of the investment for the expansion stands at around 2 million euros, Inglot said. The company has invested approximately 10 million euros for the 38 existing stores in the region.
According to him, the company is not looking to issue a bond to finance its expansion, nor is it considering an initial public offering (IPO) at present.
“Our financial position is stable,” he said.
Region’s revenue share:
The Middle East accounts for 6-7 per cent of the company’s total revenue. The region’s share is expected to grow to over 10 per cent by the middle of next year, Inglot said. While he did not divulge last year’s total revenue, he said that it has been growing by around 15 per cent year-on-year over the last five years.
Inglot’s breathable nail polish, which allows water to penetrate the nail, was received well in the UAE, according to Inglot. Sales of the product, which was launched in 2009, grew by 60 per cent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.
Inglot, which is present across all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, is in talks to open outlets in Egypt and Indonesia. It is also eyeing Pakistan, according to Inglot.
“We will open our first stores this year in Nigeria and Ivory Coast. After opening three stores in Chile, we will go with the same partner to Colombia and Peru this year,” he said.
The size of the UAE’s beauty and personal care products market stood at Dh5 billion last year, up 7 per cent over 2012, according to Euromonitor International. By 2018, the global consultancy forecasts this to grow to Dh6.4 billion.
