00:00There were lots of reports, especially around the first few days of the war, of consumers stockpiling.
00:06Have you observed this phenomenon and have you observed or detected a change in consumer patterns since the war began?
00:14Good morning, Jumana. Thank you for joining.
00:19The initial stage, any uncertainty or anxiousness, what we have seen on customers' behavior is normally
00:27they wanted to hold stock for at least two weeks, particularly staple products.
00:33So we have seen a behavior pattern in staple products, cereals, UHT milk, pastas, canned food, frozen food, etc.
00:46But we didn't see that the same pattern in Saudi Arabia as well as in Oman.
00:52Only it was in UAE. And the four days, it was very hectic.
00:56The shelves were difficult to replenish, but we were managing that four days.
01:01Now, everything back to normal.
01:05OK, so things are back to normal.
01:07There seems to be, especially at the beginning, a bit of fear mongering about the availability of fresh goods and
01:15dry goods.
01:16What is the situation on the grounds right now?
01:20So if I consider our business model, we are a very essential sector, which we have to open 24 hours
01:28for the customers.
01:29And I compartmentalize it into two sectors.
01:33One is long shelf life products and one is fresh food product.
01:37And our business model is 65 percent is actually fresh food.
01:41And within this fresh food, we have a local buying pattern.
01:45We have a local farmers and producers whom we are dependent on.
01:49We have our own factories to produce locally.
01:52And we have our own sourcing capabilities across the region.
01:56So we secure those areas of our own reliance.
02:02And what we faced in the past was the air freight was not available.
02:07And it was a concern for a couple of days.
02:10And within third or fourth day, our freight forwarders were able to get a chartered freight of products from wherever
02:18it was lacking.
02:19I mean, the products were not available here.
02:21We were managed to get in.
02:23Now, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airlines, the passenger flights are running and we were managed to bring things.
02:30Long shelf life products, we don't have a problem.
02:33Though the hummus is no more available for us to transit the stock.
02:39But we were using Jeddah port as well as Oman and Fujairah port for bringing products in from those ports.
02:48Now, we had already the shipment before the war.
02:52I mean, before March 1st, I should say, there were a lot of ships were already docked here in Jabrali
02:59and Khalifa port.
03:00We were managed to get nearly 30 containers from last two weeks.
03:05So we were sufficient enough to serve the customers on essential products.
03:12Yeah, and the thing is, it seems as though you've adapted your business to ensure that the goods keep flowing.
03:18But at what cost?
03:19And should consumers start to expect higher costs to account for some of the bottlenecks that you've had to surmount
03:27in order to supply your shelves?
03:30As I mentioned, we are a very essential sector and our purpose is to ensure we look after our communities.
03:39And that's the purpose.
03:41And of course, there is a slight increase in the cost of transportation.
03:46But if I look at the volume against the percentage of increase on the transportation, it is not huge.
03:54And we have no intention to pass this to customers.
03:57We are a very responsible retailer who wants to ensure that in certain situations like this, we maintain.
04:03And we will ensure that the customers should not be penalized at the uncertain times.
04:11And we will absorb those costs for the time being until and unless we see that we can't absorb anymore.
04:19So for the time being, we don't pass on the cost increase on the transportation particularly.
04:26No manufacturing cost has increased.
04:29So luckily, we can also look at using our sourcing capabilities wherever it is cost efficient and whether we can
04:39source those products which will not have an impact on customers' pocket.
04:44So we'll be able to use our own cost.
04:44So we'll be able to use our own cost.
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