Saudi supermarket operator BinDawood Holding is pushing ahead with expansion plans after a 23.5 percent rise in sales at its Danube outlets during the pandemic.
The Danube stores reported the surge in sales during the first nine months of 2020 thanks to the company’s pantry stocking during the pandemic, continued availability of stock and large layout of stores conducive to social distancing, the company said in a statement.
At the same time, the operator announced the opening of a new Danube store in Jeddah, which marks Danube’s expansion to 47 locations across Saudi Arabia.
The new store is located in Fayfa Avenue on Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz Street, known as Tahlia, over a 2,500 square meter area.
With the latest addition, the company has opened five new grocery retail stores in 2020.
BinDawood Holding has 74 hypermarkets and supermarkets in major cities across the Kingdom, including 47 Danube stores and 27 BinDawood outlets. The stores employ more than 10,000 people.
“Our latest Danube store has been built and designed in line with current industry and macro trends with the view to effectively meet our customers’ expectations now and in the future,” the company’s CEO, Ahmad BinDawood, said.
“We have seen a healthy uptick in demand for more modern formats in grocery retailing and we anticipate this trend to continue at a faster pace in the coming period, led by changing consumer habits and preferences.”
The financial benefits of this opening will appear from the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021, the company announced on Tadawul.
On Dec. 10, BinDawood said that its first international Danube store outside the Kingdom will be located in Bahrain. The company recently signed a lease agreement to open a Danube hypermarket store at Al-Liwan Project, in the Hamala area in northern Bahrain.
According to a bourse statement, the lease agreement will see Danube hypermarket occupy a 5,305 square meter space in the Al-Liwan Project. The hypermarket is expected to open on Oct. 4, 2021, the Tadawul announcement added.