BinDawood plans expansion after profit rise

BinDawood Holding

• Saudi Arabian grocery retailer to open up to six new stores
• Mega ‘dark store’ to boost e-commerce capability
• CEO hails ‘bounce back’ after pandemic

Grocery retailer BinDawood Holding is opening up to six new stores in Saudi Arabia this year following increases in revenue and profit.

The company operates a total of 84 hypermarkets and supermarkets across the kingdom. It is also planning to expand its e-commerce capacity including one “mega dark store”.

Dark stores are large retail facilities that resemble conventional supermarkets but are not open to the public, and house goods used to fulfil orders placed online.

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Last year, BinDawood Holding bought 62 percent of the shares of International Applications Trading Company, the company that operates its e-commerce channels. It plans to invest up to SAR160 million ($42.61 million) to support the development of the platforms.

At the end of June, BinDawood had 14 dark stores and 22 in-store online operations.

“We are consistently striving to strengthen our presence in the rapidly growing online space by opening more dark stores,” said CEO Ahmad A R BinDawood.

“We plan to roll out five or six new stores across all the formats we operate,” he added. “This will be executed with a strategic focus on major cities in the western and central regions. Our strong liquidity and debt-free position allow us to undertake acquisitions whenever an attractive opportunity is identified.”

He said the company experienced accelerated growth during the first six months of 2023, both in terms of revenue and profitability, consolidating the “bounce back to normalcy post the pandemic”. 

Revenue increased 16.6 percent year on year to SAR2.8 billion, driven by an increase in sales in both BinDawood and Danube-branded stores, helped by a sharp increase in international pilgrims for Hajj and Ramadan.

Net profit was SAR118 million in the first half, up from SAR90.7 million in the year-earlier period.

For the second quarter, revenue topped SAR1.4 billion, up 15.6 percent, while net profit was SAR65.8 million, a rise from SAR42.3 million in the year-earlier period. 

BinDawood said the improved performance was also boosted by the number of customers enrolling in the company’s customer loyalty programme, which now exceeds 4 million.