Mohammed Jassim Al Sultan, Manager, HR, at Al Meera
Al Meera Consumer Goods Company QSC (Al Meera), one of the largest retail chains in the country, has reaffirmed its commitment to support local small and mid-sized enterprises, especially the farms and agro-food producers by expanding the range of National Products at its outlets across the country.
The company is working to enhance the level of cooperation with local farmers and food producers in the coming days, according to a senior official of the company.
Al Meera group, which operates more than 50 hypermarkets and supermarkets in Qatar, has been a big supporter and promoter of local products, especially food and agro products, and in 2020 it is planning to add more local products in its shelves.
“For sure we will be adding more local products in the coming months and years. We are already working on it, and planning to go step by step. We have many big competitors with a chain of hypermarkets and supermarkets in Qatar. So we are trying to increase the number of local products as well as importing more products that are not available locally,” Mohammed Jassim Al-Sultan, Manager, HR, at Al Meera told The Peninsula recently.
Al Sultan added: “For us at Al Meera, providing more and more options to our valued customers is very important. So we are working to diversify our product portfolio and ranges. We are already collaborating with local food producers, farms and enterprises, and for sure, we are committed to enhancing this partnership with local suppliers in the future.”
He noted that for Al Meera, with its wide reach and easy accessibility to customers in almost every corner of the country, has been one of the key players in promoting local products. And with more branches in the pipelines, it will do more. Al Meera recently opened its 53rd branch in Rawdat Al Hamama, and working to open several more in different parts of the country.
“We have plans to open more branches in newly developing areas and in areas we have not reached yet. The next branch of Al Meera is set to open soon at The Mall (along the D-Ring road). And we have more to come. This is our strategy to be close to the people,” he said.
Al Meera’s procurement policy lays emphasis on sourcing goods and services from the local market in line with its key strategic direction of contributing to social, community and local business partnerships.
Through such initiatives, Al Meera is not only taking the idea of proactively supporting entrepreneurship in the country to the next level, but also setting up a role model for national institutions and corporations in Qatar to follow, with the aim of collectively achieving the economic development objectives as envisaged in the Qatar National Vision 2030.
In late November last year, Al Meera launched its initiative to support local entrepreneurs in Qatar and the country’s vision towards economic diversification.
About 30 SMEs showcased their products, which included food items, perfumes, and other commodities, to the supermarket chain for an opportunity to have their products assessed and eventually picked to be displayed on Al Meera’s supermarket shelves.
When prodded for the number of new branches expected to open in 2020, he refrained to provide the number, adding: “I don’t know the exact number of branches. But what I can say is that the next branch will be at The Mall, and wherever there are people in new areas that are being developed, you will find a branch of Al Meera coming up.”
He also said that Al Meera is also investing heavily in renovating and expanding some of its existing branches to give them a modern look and reorganizing them to accommodate more products such as fresh food and items of daily needs to offer wider choices to customers.
The company has four branches in Oman and continues to remain bullish in expanding its operations, especially focusing on the domestic market.
As part of its ongoing support for local agricultural products and entrepreneurs, Al Meera, a couple of years ago, had launched an initiative called, ‘Products from Qatar’ at Al Meera hypermarkets, providing entrepreneurs in the country with a premium platform to introduce their products to the market and sell them to consumers.
