Dubai: Majid Al Futtaim, the owner and operator of seven malls in the UAE, says it is planning to open a shopping centre in the Saudi capital. The company is also looking to expand in other Gulf markets as well, according to a senior official at the company, which will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its first shopping centre — Deira City Centre — this month.
Fuad Mansour Sharaf, Senior Director, Property Management at Shopping Malls for Majid Al Futtaim Properties, also said the company aims to double its current portfolio in the next five years, although he declined to give specific details.
Majid Al Futtaim Company, which celebrated last Thursday the completion of its expansion plans at the Muscat City Centre mall, is also planning to open another mall there, called the Mall of Oman, in the next few years.
“The construction work will start next year, and we expect the project to be completed in 2019 on an area of 157,000 square metres and nearly 350 shops.”
The Majid Al Futtaim Company, which was founded in 1992, operates 18 shopping malls and 11 hotels and there mixed-use communities in the Middle East and Northern Africa (Mena) region, with nearly 27,000 employee. Among the cities with a City Centre mall are Manama, Cairo, Alexandria and Beirut. The company also holds exclusive rights to the Carrefour franchise in 38 markets across the Mena region and Central Asia.
Recipe for success
Sharaf said that Deira City Centre was the first to offer hospitality, retail and entertainment in one mall when it opened twenty years ago.
“This recipe is one of the main reasons for our success and one of its secrets [for success],” Sharaf said.
“That was a new experience for the region, and then things developed as well as the company and its projects started to double … during the coming five years, we aim to double the company’s size,” he said.
Asked for specific figures, Sharaf added, “you are talking about one million square metres of space for rent to be doubled.”
“I think one of the secrets of our success, just one, is that we do pay a lot of attention to the details, starting from the brainstorming session, to the construction, to the completion and operational phase … We also focus on new ideas.” He added that future malls in Saudi Arabia or Oman or Egypt will have “lots of surprising elements”.
