Dubai: Centrepoint, the “mini-mall” brand owned by Landmark Group, is expanding aggressively in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), despite subdued demand in the retail market.

The market’s growth rate is expected to drop this year as a result of lower oil prices, which have fallen by more than 50 per cent since June 2014, and weaker euro and rouble, which have led some people to cut down their spending, according to Nikola Kosutic, research manager for the Middle East at Euromonitor International.

“The GCC retail market grew by 10.5 per cent in 2013, 11.3 per cent in 2014. Between 2015 and 2020, we expect the market to grow by 7-8 per cent,” he said.

Centrepoint plans to open 20 stores in the GCC and the wider Middle East during its next financial year (July 2015-June 2016), in countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

The outlets, which will house Dubai-based Landmark’s own mid-tier brands such as Babyshop, Splash and Lifestyle, as well as global brands, could span anywhere between 30,000 square feet and 60,000 square feet.

“Our business strategy is that every year we want to open between 15 and 20 new Centrepoints across the GCC and Middle East,” Vinod Talreja, director of Centrepoint, told Gulf News in an interview on Thursday.

He expects sales in the next financial year to grow by 14 per cent.

More than half of the stores are expected to open in Saudi Arabia, which is the brand’s biggest market, accounting for over 45 per cent of its revenue, according to Talreja.

Mid-market retailers in the UAE that want to increase their revenue are looking at other markets within the GCC that offer more opportunities for growth, Colin Beaton, managing director of Limelight Creative Services, a retail consultancy, said by phone.

“There’s a lot of retail development happening in Saudi. It has a population of around 30 million people; the retail market is not as developed as in the UAE; there are a lot of mid-market malls there where retailers can easily find space, with good leasing rates; and consumer demand is strong,” he said.

According to him, retailers like Centrepoint that need to occupy a large space find it challenging to secure new mall locations in Dubai.

“Centrepoint needs to be in high footfall destinations. It requires space. And those kinds of spaces are only found in mid to large shopping malls. And not many of them are coming on stream in Dubai,” he said.

Centrepoint plans to open one outlet in Dubai this year (September), which will be located at City Centre Me’aisem.

The brand plans to expand aggressively in the region over the next five years, opening 100 more stores alongside the current 116, with an investment of more than Dh1 billion.

In Iraq, it plans to open four outlets by 2016 having made its entry with a store in Sulaymaniyah last week.

Centrepoint wants to grow beyond the Middle East, Talreja said. He said it is keen on taking a slice of the African market, with Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Angola as places of interest, where it’s looking to take the franchise route. “The business environment is more friendly and there is a reasonable sized market to have a few Centrepoints in each country.”