From this website, this page and subsequent pages you can read or access extracts from the following surveys and reports published by Retail International® from the SURVEY BANK on this page:

1. Middle East & N.Africa - 2006/2007

2. Middle East Retail Dynamic - 2006

3. Year of the Hypermarket - 2006 

4. Middle East Shopping Centre Overview -  2005

5. Middle East - 2004

6. Middle East - 2003

7. Beirut Shopping Centre Report - 2004

In half a generation the
Arabian Gulf has developed into a $100 billion retail
market.

The engine room for this growth has come from the six
countries of
The Gulf Co-Operation Council ('GCC') comprising
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United
Arab Emirates. Adding in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, and
Syria, the pan-Middle East and North African retail
market is reckoned to top $500 billion.

NB. Numbers have been updated at Spring 2008 from
the original report to reflect the situation prevailing at
that time line.

From around one million square metres of space in GCC shopping malls in the 1990’s the forecast is for growth to over 20 million square metres by 2015.

In parallel the number of international retail brands represented has also risen to well over 500 from less than twenty in 1985.

The reasons for this growth lie with the basic demographic fundamentals of people and money. The countries of this region have been experiencing a largely unreported population explosion in recent years – in certain cases a doubling within a generation.

Generally, the overall economic situation has been very positive, transforming into a volcanic eruption of cash in the past few years caused by the massive hike in the price of crude oil.

The combination of a young, growing and affluent population is the ingredient for which all retailers crave. Furthermore, this scenario is overlaid with a significant population of well-heeled expatriates and a growing number of tourists. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the opportunities the Middle East now offers to retailers are now taken rather more seriously in their boardrooms than was the case ten years ago.

The well-trodden path for any non-indigenous retailer to gain entry to the high spending markets of the GCC is by way of granting a franchise to a local operator.

While the rules on foreign ownership are being relaxed, franchising was adopted as the most suitable route for international brands to enter the Middle East at a time when foreign ownership was impossible. The results today serve to prove that this has been hugely successful for all concerned.

So much so, that some of the largest retailers in the Middle East are franchisees operating a portfolio of a wide number of different international brands. On the whole low profile, and unknown to the wider public as a result of having no retail fascia of their own, these organisations and individuals have emerged as critical players in the whole Middle East retail and shopping centre development industry. No sensible mall developer will commence work without first having got at best a pre-let or, at worst, a nod of support from one or more of these key retailers.

                                       Source: Retail International®

Simon Thomson is an International Retail Consultant; qualifying originally as a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, London, he was invited to become a Member of the Counselors of Real Estate, Chicago in recognition of his work with international shopping centres. He is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centres based in New York and was a founding director of The Middle East Council of Shopping Centres in Dubai, of which he continues to belong.

Simon Thomson enjoys a distinguished career spanning more than 30 years in the international shopping centre and retail business having been and continuing to be involved with the development of leading shopping centres and the establishment of cross border retailers in Central Europe, the Middle East, Australia, USA, Western Europe.

Typical projects, clients and assignments include:

• PROJECTS & CLIENTS
• WesTown,Shekih Zayed City, Cairo, Egypt
• EasTown, Katameya, Cairo, Egypt
• SODIC/Solidere International, Egypt
• Saraya Aqaba, Jordan
• Tripoli Mall, Libya
• Magna Group, Libya
• Lusail Entertainment District, Qatar
• The Lagoon, Bahrain
• Abu Dhabi Investment House, UAE
• Sama Dubai (Dubai International Properties), Dubai
• The Boulevard, Dubai Towers Doha, Qatar 
• Gulf Finance House, Bahrain
• HSBC Bank, Dubai
• Emaar Properties PJSC, Dubai
• Dubai Marina Shopping Centre
• Mercato  Shopping Mall, Dubai
• Markaz Al Bahja Shopping Centre Muscat, Oman
• Al Habib & Co, Oman
• Al Ghurair Retail, Dubai
• Solidere s.a.l, Beirut
• The Souks of Beirut, Lebanon
• Sharjah Expo, UAE
• International Council of Shopping Centers, New York
• Institute for International Research, Dubai
• Elsevier Food International, Netherlands
• Images Retail, New Delhi, India 
• CB Richard Ellis, London & Hong Kong
• Edifice, Dubai
• Property Weekly, Dubai
• RetailME, Dubai
• Shopping Centers Today, New York 
• BROG Media Biznesu Sp. z.o.o., Poland
• Oncor International Poland
• Reform Plaza Warsaw, Poland
• Gdansk Shopping Mall, Poland
• Olsztyn Shopping Centre, Poland
• Poznan Shopping Centre, Poland
• No. 1 Poultry, City of London
• Dalston Cross Shopping Centre, London