Dubai: Retailcorp World, a subsidiary of Dubai World, on Thursday opened the region's first Auchan hypermarket at Dragonmart in International City.
Auchan is the third French hypermarket chain to expand into the GCC after Carrefour and Geant.
The Dragonmart branch is the world's 490th Auchan hypermarket.
The Auchan group is the world's 13th largest food retailing group.
Auchan was brought to the GCC by Hypercorp, a joint venture between Retailcorp and Auchan to roll out supermarkets, hypermarkets and neighbourhood stores across the GCC except Saudi Arabia.
Auchan has a 15 per cent stake in Hypercorp while the rest is held by Retailcorp. Graham Dreverman, Chief Executive Officer of Retailcorp World said: "We are extremely pleased to have signed a joint venture with the Auchan Group as we consider they have the best trading platform for our market and a successful track record in other emerging countries. We will open 15 hypermarkets and 40 supermarkets across the GCC in the coming 10 years."
Hypercorp plans to roll out Auchan in a bigger way, said Abdul Wahid Al Ulama, Executive Vice Chairman of Retailcorp World.
"Brand building will provide a key component of our strategy along the growth journey," he added.
Auchan is committed to offering cost-effective options on essentials.
"Retailcorp has already established several significant household names in the region and worldwide as well as more international brands which are in the pipeline," Al Ulama said.
Retailcorp will develop a number of hypermarkets in the next three years in Dubai, including Jumeirah Point, Palm Mega Mall, Discovery Gardens, Jumeirah Village, he said.
"Despite the global economic crisis the UAE, particularly Dubai, is still a dynamic market and our project will not face any failure," Al Ulama said.
Big demand
"There is a big demand on community malls but not mega centres and that is what Retailcorp is looking for."
Residential areas such as International City are still lacking in supermarkets to meet residents' daily needs.
"We will go beyond our developments and will expand into other master-planned communities in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the northern emirates," he said. Retailcorp is looking to create its own brands, Al Ulama said.
"We did create our café chain — The Coffee House — and opened our first shop in Ibn Battuta Mall two days ago," he said.
Al Ulama said retailing and specifically franchising is not about hunting for big brand names.
"Our market is too dynamic, vibrant and competitive for that."
French connection
n Auchan DragonMart is located in International Cityn Timings: 10am-midnight, 7 days a weekn Hypermarket area is 8,725 square metres n 2 per cent discount on cash payment on final bills
The Auchan Group
- Created in 1961, the Auchan Group is the world's 13th largest food retailing group
- It operates in 12 countries with 1,336 stores and has a workforce of 210.000
- It is an independent group held by Association Familial Mulliez (87%) and its employees (13%)
- Auchan's portfolio includes a range of grocery related concepts, each tailored towards a particular socio or demographic customer.
- The group is flexible in order to tailor store concepts that meet the need of the market with the ability of offer a boutique or gourmet style supermarket of an affluent customer base or conversely, a ‘no frills' cash and carry hypermarket appealing to more price-sensitive communities.
