Shop talk

“Planning in Lebanon has become very difficult. All our brands expect plans and targets from us for next year and the reality is that plans are meaningless when one political incident can alter your course. Realistically, we expect 2013 to be the same as 2012, if the situation remains the same internally and does not escalate. We are saying this because, at the end, Lebanon is affected by the conflict in Syria and it does not seem like it will be resolved in the near future. Again, planning for 2013 therefore becomes difficult in these circumstances.” Mher Atamian, Managing Director at Atamian “The number of Arab tourists decreased significantly this summer and the retail sector certainly suffered from this loss of revenues, but we have to deal with it and move on. The more aware and responsible Lebanese are, the more we will be able to have some damage control.”