Hema will open stores in Middle-East

Hema will head outside of Europe for the first time ever: it will open three stores in Dubai later this year. In the next five years, the Dutch chain aims to open a sizeable number of Middle-Eastern stores.

Need for affordable stores in Dubai

Dubai’s retail landscape is mostly filled with luxury stores, but its local population (mainly families) in fact need stores with affordable and high-quality products, according to Hema. That is why it will join forces with Apparel Group to open three stores in Dubai. Apparel Group manages more than 1,750 stores worldwide, for brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Rituals. Hema forecasts a range of new stores in the region’s other countries in the next few years.

“Non-European countries have expressed an interest in Hema for quite some time. That is why we have adapted our store formula and organization recently to allow us to open new stores in new countries rapidly and easily”, international director Richard Flint said. The company chose Dubai because of its enormous potential and geographically interesting location.

Hema recently announced its Austrian arrival, but it also wants to expand its store network in countries like France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom as well.