Mohammed Al Hashimi recognised a gap in the food and beverage (F&B) scene in the UAE seven years ago. His business interests in F&B in Las Vegas and Los Angeles made him realise he could “take things to another level.”
Since creating the Caramel Group, Al Hashimi has set up three Caramel restaurant and lounge branches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Nairobi, as well as Mo’s casual dining restaurant in Dubai. Looking for a new challenge, he now wants to look beyond his home market of the UAE, which he believes is now oversaturated with brands from the US, London, Russia and beyond.
“People talk about competition you have in the likes of London and New York. Dubai is far more competitive than all of these… Everyone’s going for that same market, everyone’s going for the top, high end… I don’t want to go somewhere where everyone else wants to go. Any expansion that we’re looking at doing is going to be international.”
As a result, Al Hashimi is looking to Africa for the next phase of Caramel’s development. “People will come to me and say, Africa? I don’t want to go to Africa. It’s not glamorous. Well it’s not the most glamorous place maybe, it’s not Dubai, or London, but it’s, I call it, a virgin territory.”
Original article by Lubna Hamdan
Continue reading at Arabian Business:
This time for Africa: A UAE restauranteur’s bid to crack a new continent
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