Client Situation
Our client is based in Abu Dhabi and is one of UAE’s largest and most profitable group of companies. They have diverse business interests that include eight major companies in the real estate, hospitality, travel and tourism, automotive, industrial and general trading sectors. The client had decided to enter the retail mall business and had plans to open its first mall in Abu Dhabi.
Cedar’s Approach
The client mandated Cedar with the development of a successful market strategy focusing on the operations of the proposed mall. A holistic methodology was used by Cedar which entailed:
- Understanding of the development of Abu Dhabi from a macro-economic and demographic perspective, having an impact on the proposed mall development
- Detailed evaluation of the retailing sector in Abu Dhabi
- Development of a thorough understanding of the target consumer
- Development of the business strategy and 3-year Business Plan
Outcome
Some of the key outcomes of this project were as follows:
- Detailed profiling of the competitive scenario in Abu Dhabi, including ownership patterns, size & scale of operations, product & service range offered, SWOT analysis, future plans, etc
- These included other malls in Abu Dhabi but also ‘high street’ retailers of global brands, also involving an assessment of the performance of the Abu Dhabi Mall and Marina Mall and lessons learnt
- Identification of the catchment area for the proposed mall in Abu Dhabi and a detailed assessment of the target customers, keeping in mind multi-dimensional variables
- Outline of key business processes such as project planning, sales and business development, property development, leasing, etc
- Development of a Customer Strategy by Identification of target customer profiles by various mall facilities, anticipated footfalls, spends, average time spent, cross-footfall etc
- Development of a Financial Plan including Revenue and mix (rentals, advertising income, other income streams, profit & operating cost) plan for three years
- Recommendations on mall management (outsourcing v/s in-house option); and finally, an overall capital investment plan which was especially important as the group only had a 15-year lease