Al Madina Group enters Kingdom’s retail market

Dubai-based supermarket chain Al Madina Group entered the Kingdom’s retail market by announcing the opening of its first hypermarket in Riyadh.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday night, Sultan Nasser Al-Sudairi, chairman of the Al Madina Group, said: "We take pleasure to announce our first venture in the Kingdom by providing quality products."
He added that the hypermarket will be inaugurated on Wednesday (Feb. 25) and former Najran Gov. Prince Nassar bin Khaled Al-Sudairy will grace the occasion.
When asked about the staff strength and Nitaqat guidelines, he said: "We are fully complying with the guidelines and Saudis form 50 percent of our total staff."
Out of a total of 250 staff members, 125 are Saudis, he said adding that we have also followed the guidelines to have female staff for the ladies section.
"Al Madina Group will operate fully obliging the labor laws in the Kingdom and regulations regarding the Saudization program," he underlined. The group is committed to provide more employment opportunities to Saudi youths, he added.
Located nearby Al Eman hospital between Batha and Islamabad road, Al Madinah hypermarket “will really be a new experience for the public to do shopping,” with a sales area of 1,50,000
square feet, he said.
"We are opening the hypermarket with exclusive deals and sales discounts on a wide selection of branded products," he added.
In a reply to a question on investment, Nasser Aboobecker, the newly appointed CEO of the group, who earlier worked with Nesto hypermarket, said it (investment) is nearly SR50 million.
Aboobecker added that Al Madina group is the sole distributor of Clikon life and Rich in the Kingdom.
He said plans are under way to open more hypermarkets across the Kingdom, including Jeddah in 2015. “Moreover, we maintain Islamic standards in our products and business transactions,” he added.