Sunday, Jun 24, 2012
Dubai
The potential GCC market has pushed Gyma Food Industries to spend $3 million (Dh11 million) rebranding all products under Arabic trademark Bayara to strengthen its regional roots.
“The Gulf market particularly the UAE is major to our business and we intend to find out Arabic identity to our products to ease penetrating other Arabic markets in the region, mainly Saudi, and make our business stronger and more profitable,” Jean Marc Lourau, CEO of Bayara, told Gulf News.
“With the remarkable financial crisis in Europe, the company found it very worthy to focus on the Gulf market and to affirm our commitment to the Middle East by having special Arabic brand for over 1,500 products out of Gyma 2,000 products.”
Despite the high cost of doing business and the difficult financing process, the UAE market still has many advantages over Europe, Lourau said.
Pointing to the importance of the UAE market, he said he expected Gyma’s revenue of Dh300 million a year to grow at 20 per cent to reach Dh500 million.
With over 10,000 tonnes of dried foods processed annually in Dubai and over 300 employees, the company has set aside $10 million for expansion.
In the UAE, Gyma has established two production facilities, one at Jebil Ali and another at Dubai Investment Park. Moreover, forthcoming facilities in Egypt, Saudi, Morocco and Turkey are in the expansion plan.
By Zaher Bitar Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
