French hypermarket chain Géant has made a foray into Abu Dhabi with the opening of its sixth supermarket in the UAE, as part of a growth strategy to open 35 more Géant stores across the country over the next two years.

The Géant Easy supermarket in Abu Dhabi opened today (March 21) at the One Stop Center compound in Khalifa City A in the presence of a large number of customers and executives from Retail Arabia, the master franchisee for Géant in the region.

Géant Easy is the popular convenience store brand of Géant. Four other Géant Easy stores are located in Dubai and one more in Sharjah.

Géant has been operating in the region since 2001 when it opened its first hypermarket in Bahrain before launching hypermarkets in Dubai in 2005 and Kuwait in 2009.

The Géant Easy supermarket in Khalifa City A is stocked with a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, choicest meat-cuts at the butchery, as well as a fabulous selection of cheese and cold-cuts, a statement said.

Customers can also select from a large roastery serving freshly prepared meals, and a range of French products under the Casino brand name, and assortment from all over the world.

Mohammad Ashfaq, country head, Retail Arabia, said: “This new store demonstrates Retail Arabia’s commitment to expanding its footprint within UAE, one of our main markets in this region.”

“We feel there is a huge opportunity in Abu Dhabi for both our Géant hypermarket and Géant Easy supermarket brands, as the market is underserved in terms of quality supermarket shopping experiences.”

“As part of our rapid expansion strategy, we plan to open another 35 Géant stores within the next two years. In fact we have already finalised several locations and will be opening hypermarkets in Capital Mall and Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi, Wahat Hili Mall in Al Ain, Dragon Mart in Dubai and Fujairah Mall in Fujairah,” he added.

Ashfaq said that in addition to the hypermarkets that are in the pipeline, Retail Arabia is in the final stages of negotiations to open several more supermarkets including a 32,000 sq ft supermarket that is set to open in the last quarter of this year in Paragon Bay on Reem Island in Abu Dhabi.

Yasir Arfat, Retail Arabia’s operations manager, Development for Supermarkets, said: “The fact that we are focusing on developing our supermarket brand during this high growth phase is in line with our strategy to identify residential locations across the UAE that are in great need of quality neighbourhood stores.”

“There is no doubt that the hypermarket model is here to stay and grow at a steady pace but we believe that currently more and more customers are looking for quality convenience shopping. While the hypermarkets may get three visits by a customer in a month, the supermarkets have repeat customers on a daily basis,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service