Making a foray into the intensely competitive supermarket scene in Dubai is not recommended for the faint-hearted. Or so goes the conventional wisdom.

With the advent of hypermarkets in the last five years, the strategy of supermarket chains has been to get bigger at any cost. That, market sources say, is the only recipe to stay competitive.
With the market coalescing around the big players, the neighbourhood grocery stores - that had served consumers for years - were seen as an anachronism.

But a new player in the market feels that conventional wisdom need not always be the right one.
In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, Sanjev Dewan, managing director and chief executive of Orange Supermarket llc, weighs the pros and cons as its first outlet is due to open this month in Bur Dubai.

With most of the supermarket chains emphasising volumes, what will be your strategy?
We feel a niche exists for speciality supermarkets located within key neighbourhoods. This potential has so far not been exploited in full.

Not everyone will go to a hypermarket every day, the average would more likely be every 10 or 15 days. But they might come and shop at a well located store in their own neighbourhood, and which will open throughout the day.

Emarat has been very successful with its experience. Everything depends on the location.

The location of our first store in Bur Dubai is in the vicinity of 1,200 apartments behind and around 5,000 apartments on the opposite side, which were so far being serviced by two relatively small grocery stores.

Our outlet will also offer multiple services like Internet access and 24-hour meal counters. And these services will, in turn, support each other.

There are many concepts we have borrowed from similar outlets in Paris and London.

What will be your policy on products and displays?

Our strategy is very clear - we will go in only for branded and second-choice products. I personally feel that there is just too much data for a mind to process during a day. It is difficult for the consumer to go over 25 brands of rice and decide which one to buy. In contrast, our stocking policy will be very simple.

Moreover, the fact we are trying to have an upmarket profile does not mean that we will have an upmarket pricing. Our pricing will be quite competitive.

Some facts about your operating company. Do you plan to expand the network?

We - Triplanet Inc which is registered in British Virgin Islands (BVI) - are in an equal joint venture with the Khalid Al Attar Group. There is no dearth of finance for our requirements, and the banks are interested. Regarding the actual financials, I would rather not say anything.

In the future, we will duplicate the same concept at other locations in Dubai. There are two potential locations we are actively negotiating. As for the other emirates, we should get there eventually.