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“To facilitate our future expansion plans in the country, we are going for shopping mall concept which might be differentiated into two types: community and neighbourhood ones,” said Al Meera Consumer Goods deputy CEO Mohamed al-Qahtani.
The community model is a large-scale supermarket that, in addition to traditional groceries, will include additional services such as banks, food court and ‘laundromats’, he said.
The neighbourhood model is a convenience store, catering to the immediate vicinity with groceries and basic services, such as dry cleaners and pharmacies, he said.
“Using this model, 2013 will see more Al Meera outlets opening throughout the country,” he said, asserting that Qatar has always been and will always be its primary market.
Even though in the past year the company inked deals to expand its brand in international markets, the exercise has not been done at the expense of the domestic market, al-Qahtani said.
Accordingly, over 60,000sqm of Al Meera’s community and neighbourhood shopping mall are already under development, most of which are expected to open sometime during the next three years, he said.
The Laqtafia outlet, a 4,000sqm neighbourhood shopping mall, is to break ground in the coming weeks, he said, adding regulators have given the go-ahead to begin development of the Al Dakira shopping mall.
He said, the proposed Al Wajba, Jeryan Njema, Muraikh, Azizia, Rawdad Akdeem, Muaither, Rawdad al-Hamama, and Al Wakra branches were already in the design phase with construction expected to commence within the coming months.
Al Meera has already secured 15 plots of land in Qatar to further facilitate the company’s expansion
plan from 2015 onward.
“Our expansion plans involve more than just increasing our retail space...Our strategy also calls for expanding product offerings to our customers,” al-Qahtani said.
Since the beginning of the year, Al Meera has expanded its retail space by over 10,000sqm. The Abu Nakhla shopping Mall (5,000sqm) and airport road hypermarket (also 5,000sqm) are already up and running.
In addition, old Al Meera outlets also continued to be converted to the new and innovative concept: a modern design tailor-made for the Qatari market by international design firms.
Al Meera started its conversion in August last year with the Khalifa South and Mansoura stores; this year it has already converted the Hazem al-Markhiya branch. The Mamoura and Azghawa branches will be refurbished before the end of the year, according to a spokesman.
Giant Stores, which Al Meera Holding acquired last year along with the Al Oumara Baking Company, will see four of its stores re-branded into Al Meera supermarkets by the end of December, he said.
Additionally, new convenience stores will be opened at the Sealine resort south of Doha, the Beverly Hills Tower, and the Beverly Hills 3 compound during the last quarter of this year.