Dubai: Majid Al Futtaim (MAF), a retail and leisure group, revealed on Tuesday a new brand direction and visual identity.
The group said its new brand direction will bring together MAF group of companies under one umbrella corporate brand.
The group has three business divisions, including MAF Properties, MAF Retail and MAF Ventures. Operating in more than 12 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, the group plans to expand to new markets in Mena and elsewhere, according to Iyad Malas, CEO of MAF Holding.
“This major re-branding initiative will reinforce the Majid Al Futtaim name behind the unique experiences and brand,” Malas said.
According to group executives, the new brand direction will help instill confidence and trust in consumers, including those in new markets outside of the UAE.
“Knowing that Majid Al Futtaim is behind a brand of a City Centre or a Carrefour, gives the customer confidence. When we take these same brands into new markets, it will bring in the same level of quality and same level of experience,” Ahmed Ismail, CEO of MAF Ventures, a division of MAF, said.
Investment in a new brand will allow MAF “to extract higher returns,” Ismail said.
Investments
MAF plans to invest around a billion dollars a year for the next five years, according to Malas. “We have doubled our business every five years over the last 20 years and we have ambitious plans to double the size of the business by 2018,” he said, adding that he expected revenue growth to stand between “nine and ten per cent” this year.
Speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of the conference, Malas said, the company expects to open Carrefour supermarkets and hypermarkets in Armenia in 2014. It is studying the possibility of entering African countries, he said.
Beirut City Centre opened this year, while Mall of Egypt, currently under construction, is expected to open in late 2015 or early 2016.
Also, the company is in the process of “finalising land in Riyadh for a large shopping mall,” he said.
Two other projects — mixed-use communities — are under construction, including the Waterfront City in Lebanon and Al Zahia in Sharjah.
MAF announced an investment of Dh200 million in November to expand the Sharjah City Centre, adding a gross leasable area of 13,500 square metres. It is also expanding Mall of the Emirates, due to be completed in 2015.
Commenting on the growth of MAF’s businesses, Malas said: “We’ve had steady growth across the businesses this year. I don’t think you’ll see over the next five years a big shift in the composition of the business, either in terms of assets or in terms of cashflow generation. But maybe towards the end of that period in 2018, as we open the new malls in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, we will begin to see some shift in the asset composition of our total assets.”
No DWC plans
MAF does not have plans to launch projects in Dubai World Central (DWC), according to Malas. “We will meet the Expo team in January to see where a group like ours can contribute to make that project a success, but today there’s nothing specific,” he said.
