Damas is the leading jewelry chain in the United Arab Emirates and a luxury venture that claims to have a 17 percent share of the domestic market. The roots of its founding family in the precious business go back more than a century. Today the company is owned by regional investors. Fortified with a recent business restructuring and a clear strategy of concentration on its core market, namely the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, it is positioning itself for growth, specifically in Saudi Arabia, but also seeks to further expand its standing in the UAE, chief executive Anan Fakhreddin told Executive.

“When the restructuring started two years ago, we put the first priority on our core markets. Our core markets definition today is the GCC. These are the markets where Damas started and where we have a very strong understanding of consumer trends and preferences,” Fakhreddin said. 

Organizational and marketing initiatives in the recent past included new partnerships with international jewelry brands, investments in quality assurance, including collaboration with UAE authorities for training customs officers on purity of gold, and the hiring of a Bollywood celebrity for a marketing campaign for the Diwali Hindu festival. The festival, which this year falls in November, is a huge jewelry buying occasion for the Asian customer segment in the UAE and stores can get so crowded with customers that one can hardly move, explained a Damas spokesperson.  

The outcome of the 2012 business year for Damas is going to be determined to a large part by the last two months of the year, Fakhreddin said, due to the role of the Diwali and overall contribution of the year-end holiday season to sales. 

So far, so normal. But the corporate narrative of this jewelry house in 2012 is more than some lore of doing business in gold and precious stones. It is a cautionary tale that a corporate centenarian can make a pretty bundle of mistakes, that mature individual age and folly are not mutually exclusive, and most importantly, the most recent chapter of its story is that a turnaround is possible at over 100 years old. 

A Shaky start

About five years ago, the successful family group Damas, which since 2005 included a minority stake holding by two regional private-equity players, was preparing for its future. At the time, a business prophecy was making the rounds among the family-owned enterprises in the Gulf region. This prophecy, with many good success stories and references from developed economies, said that the future was for  them to become listed companies. 

The UAE stock markets were not even 10 years old for the Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses and the youngest, then known as Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), was still in its diapers, full of promise. Many who appeared as wise consultants advised the business families of Dubai and anywhere in the Arab region that it would be a boon for the national economy and a far-sighted decision for any large and ambitious family enterprise to undertake an initial public offering.  

The Abdullahs (Tawfique, Tawhid, and Tamjid), three brothers whose grandfather had laid the foundations for the Damas Group, decided to go for an IPO. The company picked the highly-touted DIFX (today Nasdaq Dubai) and embarked on its flotation. Smack in the middle of 2008. 

What happened then lends itself to the perception that no financial thriller writer could have imagined a worse time and place for any company to go public than June/July 2008 on the DIFX. Damas announced that its IPO successfully raised $270 million by floating 28 percent of its capital at $1 a share, valuing the enterprise at close to $970 million. It did not announce that one of the Abdullahs — Tawhid, who was chief executive of Damas — had done a circular investment pact with several investment companies in Dubai, including a unit of Dubai Holding, by which he lent them cash used to buy 100 million shares in the IPO. In 2009, the loan was reportedly converted into an investment that seems to imply that Damas had effectively bought itself and all it got out of it was a huge, non-performing loan, according to a report in Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, The National.    

Moreover, the Abdullah brothers had run Damas with a piggy bank approach, taking out cash and borrowing gold at will and with no control, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The feudal approach to corporate governance might have perhaps been manageable in better times, but with the global economic crisis, the burst of the Dubai economic bubble and many soured investment gambles by the Abdullahs, it all came out. The Abdullahs were obligated to resign and banned by the financial authority from managerial roles, for 10 years, at any company based at the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC).

Left behind was an orphaned company with hundreds of scattered stores (in a July 2008 Reuters news item on the Damas IPO it said the company operations entailed 438 stores in 18 countries) and a big financial problem.  Deals were struck and a formula for repayment of their obligations to creditors including Damas was agreed upon with the Abdullahs. As often with grim fairy tales, many gaps in the narrative of this corporate crash were left for interested readers to fill with their own assumptions. 

The turnaround of Damas entailed a restructuring under Fakhreddin’s captaincy that commenced in 2010 and a buyout by regional investors in  the spring of last year. The new parents, Mannai Corporation of Doha, Qatar, and EFG Hermes, the Egyptian investment bank, paid 45 cents on the dollar for each share in Damas and took control of 85 percent in the company, according to stock market reports. 

Mannai Corp, owning a 66 percent controlling stake in Damas, says on its website that it is Qatar’s largest trade and services conglomerate; it is affiliated with the ruling al Thani family. The other 15 percent in Damas remained with the Abdullahs.      

Future expansion

Fakhreddin said he could not discuss the owners’ plans for the jewelry company but told Executive that “they have been investing in terms of assets, resources, and support and are investing very generously on the brand. The Damas brand will see a lot of growth in the coming years because of this takeover and the level of attention and support that we are getting from the new owners.” 

Importantly, the new shareholders’ investment decision was long-term, he said. “It is not a turnaround project where you buy something, fix it, and sell it.”

Besides sorting out the financial obligations of the mismanaged enterprise, the restructuring of Damas entailed structural changes of operations that had been convoluted with less-than-strategic investment decisions and movements into new markets. The GCC was always the center of Damas’ retailing strength but this was “unfortunately sometimes overlooked” and the weeding of overseas operations was needed, Fakhreddin said. “Today we follow the strategy that makes sure that investments are placed in core markets. Until we are satisfied with penetration levels in those markets, I don’t think we will look at expansions in any other markets.”

In line with this business plan, Damas appears to be not aggressively approaching the market in India where it has a joint venture (JV) managed by the JV partner. It has bought out its partner in Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, and is planning to attack this market vigorously. According to Fakhreddin the past 18 months since the full acquisition in Saudi Arabia saw growth but the main task achieved was refocusing the organization on serving the high-end and middle-class luxury segments. 

The Damas chief executive expects the “real success story” will commence in 2013 when the expansion plan of stores in Saudi Arabia kicks off. The company understands well the currently very fragmented Saudi jewelry market because of many similarities to the Arab segment in the Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets. Fakhreddin said, “Potential for market share in Saudi, one of the top jewelry markets in the world, is still open for growth.”  

Performance of Damas in financial terms has been stable in the past three years on the side of gross revenues. As the company de-listed from Nasdaq Dubai this summer (and is switching its financial year to the calendar year in 2012), Fakhreddin said that the company has more or less completed the restructuring and has only “to sort out files in some non-core markets where we have business relationships that we want to realign.”

That should be achieved in the first quarter of 2013, he added, and then they want to grow much more than in the past four or five years, in which things had been “a little static because of the global recession and our issues. We are planning lots of improvement in terms of brand, [the] look and feel of the shops, [and] customer service. Much of that will be tackled in 2013.”

Business at Dubai Duty Free (DDF) improved again in the first half of 2012 as the aviation world’s single-location uber-retailer reported 11 percent growth in sales from a year earlier. With the same man — Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman of DDF — at the helm in since the first day of operations and a corporate narrative approaching legend status, Executive wanted to find out what the venture is up to now. Guess what? More expansions. 

Dubai Duty Free has an impressive track record of growth since its inception in 1983. What results do you expect to achieve this year?

In our first full year of business, our sales reached $20 million, which was good. Last year on our anniversary day in December, the daily sales reached $24 million, which is a good indication of how far we have come as an operation. We expect our sales for this year to reach $1.6 billion.

Our staffing levels have obviously grown dramatically over the years and we now have 5,000 employees, including 47 of the original 100 staff that we recruited back in 1983. As myself and George Horan, my deputy and president of Dubai Duty Free, are among those 47, I think that we have done an okay job so far.

Have you ever felt concerned that the good times may not last?

I have always been confident that we would continue to grow and do well. Our turnover has doubled six times since operations began and will double again by around 2018. We have had great support from the Government of Dubai and in particular from H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and chairman of Dubai Duty Free. The challenge, and it is a good challenge to have, is to continue to grow our business and ensure that we retain our position as one of the top duty free retailers in the world in terms of our retail offer and our turnover.

In this respect what are the next steps that you plan to implement? You are already the world’s top duty free operator, are you aiming for further accolades?

It is important for us to retain our position as one of the top duty free operations in the world both in terms of turnover and our retail operation. It is also important to us to retain our role as a ‘Superbrand’ and we will continue to invest in our marketing strategy for this. In terms of our retail operation, we have great plans in place for expansion over the coming months. The opening of Concourse A in the first quarter of 2013 will provide us with an additional 8,000 square meters (sqm) of retail space, bringing our total retail offer to 26,000 sqm. The new concourse will be dedicated to the Emirates A380 fleet. So, we are busy with getting our retail area fitted out and are finalizing our product categories for that as well as recruiting an additional 1,300 staff in readiness for the opening.

We have also extended automation within our Distribution Centre from 70 percent automation to 90 percent. This will ensure that from a logistics point of view we are well equipped to receive and issue merchandise across all terminals.

Chinese travelers are said to be avid spenders on luxury and Russia has been another large source of demand for products at DDF. Are these the customer groups and their interest in luxury where you focus your attention?

Dubai International Airport is a major hub and therefore the mix of nationalities using the airport is huge and it is important that we cater to all groups. The Chinese and Russian travelers are important to us of course, particularly in the luxury goods category, but passengers from the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East are also among our top spenders. It is also important for us to cater to different budgets, we sell over 900,000 kilograms [kg] of nuts for example and over 1 million kg of Nido powdered milk every year, so we have to cater to that customer in exactly the same way as we would a customer purchasing a high-end luxury product.

On your 28th anniversary last December you managed to achieve those $24 million in sales that you mentioned earlier; what record do you expect to hit this year?

The $24 million was a great achievement; it means that we sold $1 million dollars worth of goods every hour. We have anecdotal evidence that passengers chose to fly on December 20th in order to avail of the discount and that is fantastic. We would hope to increase last year’s figure by around 10 percent but we will have to see on the day.

DDF has substantial commitments to sports sponsorship, of which horse racing is a personal favorite. So taking this example, how much does your horse racing sponsorship contribute to your overall success and what value can you put on your image and brand development? Are you planning new sponsorship deals?

Our overall sponsorship program includes horse racing, tennis, golf, rugby, powerboat racing and basketball, among others and is a key factor in our marketing drive. We began our sponsorship of sporting events back in the mid 1980s so were probably one of the early pioneers of sports marketing. Our aim continues to be building up our brand awareness, drive footfall to our retail operation and raise the profile of Dubai as a leading sports and leisure destination.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is certainly the biggest event that we sponsor and we actually own the two tournaments on the ATP and WTA tours. The fortnight of tennis results in $325.67 million worth of TV exposure for the event, with $170 million of that focused on the DDF brand. So that is a big investment, which has very clear returns as far as we are concerned.

Horse racing is also a great way for us to fly the flag and our sponsorship of the Dubai World Cup here at Meydan is one of the highlights of our racing calendar. We have worked hard to also build up exposure for our other sponsorships including the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby held in June in Ireland. This year the print media coverage was extensive and the estimated value was around 1.6 million euros ($2.1 million) alone.

We are constantly approached to look at new sponsorship offers, but we cannot be everywhere and we have to turn things down in order to consolidate our existing sponsorships.

For a retailer and a duty free specialist at that, it seemed a bit unusual that you last year created a new division to manage hospitality operations located deep within the land-side of the customs barrier and expand these operations through the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel. What drove these decisions and are you hedging plans for more properties?

The Jumeirah Creekside, which opened in July, is a fantastic addition to our Leisure Division, which includes The Irish Village, the Century Village, the Aviation Club and the Dubai Tennis Stadium. The 5-star hotel is located within the same complex in Garhoud which of course is also close to the airport.

It made sense for us to look at building a hotel that would be the official hotel for many of our events, including the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. We have no immediate plans for another property.

Perfume, liquor and gold are on your list of top-selling products. Are there products that you feel need working on and what are you doing about it? What percentage of overall sales would you like them to contribute?

There have been significant increases across all major categories including perfumes, liquor and gold. With the new concourse opening next year, we will have the chance to increase our categories and add new brands, which we have been unable to do as a result of space constraints. We think that the fashion and luxury product range can be enhanced and this is being looked at in relation to Concourse A.