The Challenge

  • A renowned Middle Eastern conglomerate, a vertically integrated supply chain involved in growing, processing, transporting, trading and retailing food products in Saudi Arabia wanted to examine an additional business opportunity of a single brand grocery store stocking both its own products and other products produced exclusively for the company under a single brand.

  • As part of the opportunity assessment study, field based primary research was undertaken in Saudi Arabia combined with extensive desk research (both regionally and globally) in order to understand the single brand grocery retailing market.

The study identified four ‘value propositions’ that are being used by existing single brand retailers in different countries:

  • Geographic origin – an appeal based on a specific (usually local) source for the products
  • Health/organic – selling only products implied to confer a health benefit as compared to products sold elsewhere
  • Price – simply cheaper overall and on a product-by-product basis than multi-brand stores, as characterized by so-called ‘hard discounters’ in Europe and the US
  • Brand extension – extending the established appeal of an existing brand (food or non-food) into the grocery retailing arena

A hybrid concept combining brand extension with geographic origin was recommend as part of the market study.