Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

Ashish Panjabi: Stability without the spikes for UAE retailers

After a phenomenal year for UAE retail due in part to Expo Dubai and the World Cup effect, we now expect a steadier time for business

Jacky's
The B2B side of the Jacky's business is moving into software to support its robots and other technologies

As the world slowly grapples with rising inflation, increased costs, and the looming threat of a recession, we’ve been blessed to be in the UAE.

As a region that relies on global trade and supply, probably the biggest challenge was supply chain and logistics in 2022.

But this got better as the year went on: shipping schedules improved, we did see some fluctuations in costs because of currencies and interest rates, but overall, despite economic indicators showing that we should have seen a dip or a slowdown in demand, we didn’t, at least not in our region. 

2022 has been phenomenal for businesses in the UAE, building on the Russian boom that we have seen over the previous two years, and Expo 2020 Dubai that finished in the beginning of 2022.

The current World Cup effect has also helped the recovering hospitality sector across the neighbouring GCC. 

In 2023 I think we’ll see some stabilisation for businesses. The spike we saw in the last two years will come down and remain steady. We will probably see reasonable growth, but not the likes of what we have seen over the previous two years.

One silver lining for 2023: as one of the few countries and regions that are friendly with China, we will start seeing an influx of Chinese tourists that will return to travel from the New Year, after a few years of lockdown and restrictions. 

With a lot of people moving into the region, Dubai and the UAE has suddenly become the centre of the world for a lot of people, and I don’t think that’s going to stop, given the new regulations in the UAE that are business and investment friendly. 

We will continue to see the UAE dominate the travel and hospitality sectors. This means a boom for one of the largest sectors in the region and this has a ripple effect for other industries. 

With the prospect of a global recession, most businesses are a lot more cost-conscious – certainly retailers are. From a retailer’s perspective, I think the biggest issue is going to be managing costs and the cost of retail real estate is at the top of the list. 

With the real estate sector seeing a higher demand, certain retail landlords are trying to go back to the old (pre-pandemic) ways. We hope that they realise that one-sided conversations are not sustainable in the long-term and that, for businesses to continue to grow and be sustainable, it means that operating costs need to be sustainable too.

Otherwise, we are going to end up with empty shops in key locations or pricing ourselves out of the consumers’ pockets.  

We will also see a lot of volatility as global markets continue to be impacted. The fact that our currency is pegged to the US dollar means we are, to some extent, immune to what’s happening globally to various currencies but others (that travel and do business with the region) would be. 

The tourists coming from the Indian subcontinent, Europe, Africa and other parts of the world are starting find the region to be a little more expensive partly because of currency issues.

Specifically for Jacky’s, we are looking at the opening of new retail outlets in Dubai Hills for Jacky’s Electronics. On the B2B side of the business, we will see more of a move into software to support our robots and various software technologies like RPA and Digital Avatar technologies. 

We launched an organic OEM brand, Eatiq Organic Foods, a couple of years ago that will be expanding its footprints across larger hypermarkets and chains and into other countries across the region as people get more conscious of what they consume.

Ashish Panjabi is chief operating officer at Jacky’s Group

Latest articles

Emirati director Nayla Al Khaja. Her film 'Three' is currently being shown in UAE theatres in Mandarin using Camb.ai's AI translation programme

Dubai startup helps AI-voice cloning take centre stage

A YouTube video released in January of Novak Djokovic shows the tennis star speaking fluent Spanish at a post-match press conference.  While the Serbian champion is renowned for speaking several languages, in this case his voice was created by an artificial intelligence tool developed by a Dubai-based startup, Camb.ai. The original Djokovic footage was taken […]

Alec IPO SeaWorld Abu Dhabi

Alec IPO could start listings rush in construction sector

A listing by Dubai’s Alec Engineering and Contracting could open the gates for more construction-related companies to go public as they take advantage of the country’s buoyant property market, according to a business expert. Alec, which is backed by the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, is behind some of the […]

A Saudi woman works inside the first all-female call centre in the kingdom's security sector, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Saudi Arabia unemployment fell in Q4 2023

Unemployment among Saudi Arabian nationals fell to 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023, from 8 percent during the same period in 2022, the government said this week, reflecting the growth of the non-oil sector despite an economic contraction.  Unemployment among Saudi males was 4.6 percent, which was up from 4.2 percent the year […]

Saudi finance minister Mohammed al-Jadaan

Saudi FDI inflow up but still far short of target

The net inflow of foreign direct investment into Saudi Arabia was just over SAR13 billion ($3.5 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 16 percent on the previous period, government data said this week.  The data, released by the General Authority for Statistics, puts the total net inflow for 2023 at SAR46 billion, which […]