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Food & Drink

Food & drink news from the Middle East. All the important stories, exclusive interviews, plus authoritative opinion and analysis

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Food & Drink news

Shoppers walk past a coffee shop at a shopping mall in Ankara, Turkey

Turkish consumer confidence slides as inflation persists

Turks appear to have taken to heart government efforts to cool the economy and rein in inflation, with the latest consumer confidence survey showing a dip in outlook, reversing a five-month upward trend. Turkey’s consumer confidence slipped further into negative territory in November, according to data issued by statistics agency Turkstat on November 21, as […]

Lulu's revenue rose to $1.86bn, driven by strong sales performances in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

Lulu Q3 profit rises 126% as revenue hits $1.9bn

Lulu Retail Holdings, the largest grocery retailer in the GCC, reported a 126 percent year-on-year increase in net profit to $35.1 million in the third quarter of 2024. The company cited improved operating profit and cost management for the rise. Revenue rose to $1.86 billion, up 6 percent on last year, driven by a strong […]

Jadwa Investment's new fund has completed its first three investments in the retail and food and beverage sectors

Jadwa raises $266m for GCC investment fund

Saudi Arabia’s Jadwa Investment has announced the first close for its blind pool private equity fund, with total capital commitments of SAR1 billion ($266 million).  The fund, called GCC Private Equity Fund 1, will invest in “high-potential private equity opportunities across the GCC”, the company said.  A blind pool fund is where investors commit capital without […]

talabat ipo

Talabat to raise $1.5bn from Dubai listing

The parent company of food delivery app Talabat, is expected to raise AED5.2 billion to AED5.6 billion ($1.4 to $1.5 billion) in gross proceeds from its Dubai Financial Market listing. Delivery Hero Mena Holding is offering more than 3.49 billion shares from November 19-28, with the price range set between AED1.50 and AED1.60 ($0.40 and £0.43) […]

Saudi consumers are looking for non-alcoholic drinks that deliver the flavour of traditional cocktails

Saudis getting a taste for non-alcoholic drinks

The Saudi government’s drive to improve the nation’s health is boosting the food and beverage market in the most unlikely of places – zero-alcohol beer.  A report by MarkNtel Advisors shows the Gulf market is growing by 7.7 percent a year. The local and international brands vying for share include Aujan Group Holding, Anheuser-Busch InBev, […]

AlAbraaj has several franchises in Saudi Arabia, including Mezza-W-Mashawi at Riyadh's King Khalid airport

Restaurant chain AlAbraaj plans IPO on Bahrain Bourse

AlAbraaj Restaurants Group is planning to list on Bahrain Bourse before the end of 2024. Founded in 1987, the restaurant chain manages 15 brands across 37 locations in Bahrain. It employs about 1,200 people. AlAbraaj also franchises five restaurants, three of which are in Saudi Arabia – Khobar, Jeddah and Riyadh. The company is finalising […]

A Talabat delivery driver in Doha, Qatar

Talabat focusing on core markets ahead of listing, says CFO

Food delivery app Talabat aims to prioritise organic growth over geographical expansion, its chief financial officer says, as it prepares to launch one of the region’s largest listings. Delivery Hero, the German parent company of the UAE-headquartered app, announced on Monday that it plans to sell a 15 percent stake in Talabat.  The initial public […]

Talabat IPO: it has more than 119,000 riders on its platform

Talabat plans to list 15% on Dubai bourse via IPO

Talabat Holding, a UAE-based online food ordering and delivery platform, plans to list 15 percent of its share capital on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). Nearly 3.49 billion shares, each with a nominal value of AED 0.04, will be divested through the initial public offering. The shares will be offered by the sole shareholder, Delivery […]

A Turkish pistachio farmer. Prices for shelled pistachios have risen to $41 a kilo.

Chocolate trend sends Dubai nuts for Turkish pistachios

It may have started with a UAE resident trying to assuage her hunger cravings during pregnancy, but the latest taste sensation to sweep the Middle East and beyond is causing contractions in the supply of Turkish pistachios as demand for Dubai chocolate swells. Turkey is in line to post a record high pistachio harvest for […]

Talabat couriers in Abu Dhabi. The company operates in eight countries across the Mena region

Talabat profits soar ahead of planned IPO

Food delivery company Talabat reported a 46 percent increase in third-quarter profits ahead of its planned IPO.  Delivery Hero, the Berlin-headquartered parent company of the business, said net income reached $98 million in the three months, up from $67 million the previous year. It said the increased profit was due to improved logistics efficiency, continued […]

Coca-Cola Turkey

Boycotts help send Turkey’s Coca-Cola sales down

A boycott of brands seen as supporting Israel in the Middle East has helped bring a double-digit drop in third-quarter sales in Turkey and Pakistan for a Coca-Cola subsidiary. Coca-Cola Icecek (CCI), which is based in Istanbul, said sales in Turkey in Q3 fell 12.2 percent, while sales in Pakistan were down by 22.9 percent. […]

A KFC store in Cairo. Americana brands across the Mena region have been suffering from a customer boycott

Americana CEO says boycott ‘worst is behind us’

Americana Restaurants, the Middle East franchise owner for KFC, Pizza Hut, Krispy Kreme and Hardee’s, believes the company has weathered the worst of the boycott issues it faced this year, which led to a significant slump in its profit. CEO Amarpal Sandhu said it is not predicting a “hockey stick recovery” – a sudden and […]

A KFC restaurant in Dubai. Brand owner Americana has posted a 54% drop in profit in the third quarter

Americana opens more stores despite profit slump

Quarterly profits at Americana Restaurants have shrunk again, but the Middle East franchise owner for KFC, Pizza Hut and Hardee’s continues to open new stores as its promotional drive spurs a recovery in daily sales. The fast-food brand operator reported a 54 percent drop in profit in the third quarter to $37.4 million, as the […]

Finance minister Mehmet Şimşek said “Bakeries are the places where the most tax evasion occurs" in Turkey but those in the industry dispute this

Turkey targets butchers, bakers and tax law breakers

Ankara has opened a new front in its war on tax avoidance, as the Turkish finance minister flags a crackdown on small and medium-scale businesses to help balance the budget and increase transparency. Just weeks after announcing a major offensive against tax avoiders in the corporate world, with hundreds of state auditors to be deployed […]

Herfy operates 385 branches in Saudi Arabia and also has a presence in Kuwait, Bangladesh and Nigeria

Shareholder disputes worsen Saudi fast-food chain Herfy’s woes

As its profits and share price plunge, Saudi Arabia’s leading fast-food chain Herfy has become embroiled in disputes with its two biggest shareholders. Founded in 1981 by Ahmed Al-Said after he returned from studying in the United States, Herfy operates about 385 restaurants across the kingdom, plus bakeries and meat processing factories. It also has […]

chicken exports

Gulf’s taste for chicken boosts Brazilian exports

Saudi Arabia and the UAE has helped Brazil record the second-highest volume of chicken meat exports in a single month. Shipments of chicken from Brazil in September increased 17.6 percent to the United Arab Emirates and 5.9 percent to Saudi Arabia. Brazil, the world’s largest supplier of chicken meat, exported 485,000 tonnes in total last […]

Switzerland-based Barry Callebaut is the world's largest manufacturer of industrial chocolate, with about a 40 percent market share in volume terms

World’s largest chocolatier plans factory in Egypt

The world’s largest producer of chocolate has said it plans to build a $30 million factory in Egypt. Switzerland’s Barry Callebaut is the world’s largest manufacturer of chocolate, with about a 40 percent market share in volume terms, and is the largest processor of cocoa beans with about 20 percent market share. Vamsi Mohan Thati, […]

Spinneys says the deal with Food Tech Valley is a 'significant step in our ambitious growth plans'

Spinneys to build processing unit in Food Tech Valley

The UAE supermarket chain Spinneys has signed a deal to build a 500,000 square foot food processing unit in Dubai’s Food Tech Valley as part of the plan to increase its locally sourced produce. The deal, which will last for 27 years, is intended to foster innovation in food processing as part of the wider […]

Almarai's third-quarter net profit of the dairy and juice segment increased year on year, thanks to improved sales in core GCC markets,

Almarai Q3 2024 profit rises 17% amid revenue growth

Almarai, the Middle East’s largest dairy farm, said third-quarter 2024 net profit rose 17 percent to SAR570 million ($152 million), compared with SAR486 million a year ago. The profit growth was driven by a 9 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to SAR5.2 billion amid growth in all product categories across all geographies, except Egypt. Despite […]