Waitrose is on the verge of its first front-line overseas exposure after reportedly signing a licensing agreement to open 20 stores in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Financial Times, the UK’s sixth-biggest supermarket chain will open the outlets in the UAE by 2010, as part of a deal with Spinneys, a Dubai-based store operator that already sells a range of Waitrose products.
Waitrose has already exported ambient products to 20 countries, said the FT, but “this is the first time the company has licensed its name to be used on a store front outside the UK”.
The chain’s commercial director Richard Hodgson, told the newspaper that levels of affluent expatriate shoppers and Arabs make the UAE market a prime target for Waitrose premium brand.
Hodgson is quoted as saying this could be the start of something big for his company. “Over the next 10 years, our international business could account for as much as 10 per cent of turnover,” he said. “We have said that we wanted to double turnover to £8 billion over that time, so international could be an £800 million business against £20m in export deals now.”
David Morton, a former Sainsbury executive will become Waitrose’s international director in the new year. Waitrose claims to have received interest from South Africa and India, and hopes soon to sign an export deal with a well-known US retailer, said the FT.
Waitrose’s first 25,000sqft store is due open in April in a suburb of Dubai. Another two stores will be built next year.
