Azadea Group, a premier lifestyle retail company, has launched the first-of-its-kind Shared Service Center in Jordan providing job opportunities to Jordanian citizens.

With an initial investment of more than $8 million, the Azadea Shared Service Center (ASSC) will cater to the needs of Azadea’s operations in eight markets across the Middle East including Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and UAE, providing support across four primary shared business functions: accounting, payroll, stock management, and supply planning.

“At Azadea, we’ve been creating a culture of possibilities and empowerment for more than 12,000 employees across the region for nearly 40 years,” said Walid Chahine, chief operating officer, Azadea Group. “The launch of our first-ever Shared Service Center marks a milestone achievement in operational management, focusing on excellence and specialisation of human talent. The creation of the new ASCC will help pave our way for centralizing talent and expanding on our work efficiency using high-end technology solutions.”

The annual running costs for the ASSC are estimated at $4 million, with the total number of staff employed set at around 200+ employees. Azadea seeks to build on its mission of becoming an employer of choice, especially after being selected as one of the top companies to work for by the “Jordan Business Magazine” and the LinkedIn Employer of Choice Award in 2016. The ASSC will thus invest in people’s skills and offer career advancements to better encourage a healthy and productive working environment.

Jordan was chosen as the location for the ASSC following an extensive selection process among locations in the Middle East, Europe and Asia focusing on a number of criteria including infrastructure, business and regulatory environment, financial considerations, talent pool and accessibility. After around 17 years in the Jordanian market Azadea had a solid belief that it is the best country to choose among thanks to a number of unique attributes that distinguish this country.

“Jordan was the ideal location for our investment thanks to several human and economic attributes such as the pool of talent in core departments like accounting and logistics, as well as the stable currency, solid infrastructure and political security which made Jordan standout as our country of choice,” explained Chahine.

Azadea’s long-term strategy for the ASSC is to evolve the center to include the migration of more business functions through a phased integration plan. - TradeArabia News Service