Industry Developments

Spar has announced plans to rollout express convenience stores in Zimbabwe as the food retail sector continues to show strong improvement following dollarization. Spar already runs... 2011-02-15

High-end UK food retailer Waitrose has opened its first store in Bahrain as it continues to slowly build up business in the Middle East. Waitrose also has two stores in Dubai where... 2011-02-11

Egypt finds itself in a real quagmire and it is no exaggeration to say that the political transition currently under way is one of the most important events since the turn of the millennium.... 2011-02-10

There is going to be a big take off in consumer spending across most of Africa over the next few years. Rising incomes, urbanisation and healthy demographics across much of the region... 2011-02-09

In what appears to be a landmark move, Saudi Arabia's Menafea Holding is going to invest US$125mn in Zambia with a view to developing a juice production plant. Under the terms of the... 2011-02-01

Saudi Arabia possesses one thing that the rest of the Gulf region does not: a large population. It contributes about two thirds of the Gulf population and should serve up significantly... 2011-01-31

Not as wealthy as Gulf peers such as Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE, nor is it as large as Saudi Arabia, Oman has not attracted too much attention on the consumer side in recent years compared... 2011-01-28

Even though our Middle East desk believes Egypt's economic and political risk profile is likely to deteriorate in the short term, this does not take away from the fact that there are... 2011-01-27

On the face of it, Syria looks as promising on the consumer side as the Middle East and North African (MENA) economies go. Although it hardly covers itself in glory with its business... 2011-01-26

BMI expects Saudi Arabia's mass grocery retail (MGR) industry to register very strong growth through to 2015, with average annual headline sales growth forecast at 10.5%, which is quicker... 2011-01-25