Enoc to hire another 300 as it opens more Zoom, F&B outlets

Dubai-based fuel retailer Enoc is aggressively expanding its retail and food and beverages businesses by focusing more on standalone outlets, investing more than half a billion dirham, officials said.

Burhan Al Hashemi, Managing Director for Retail at Enoc, said: “We will open 30 more Zoom stores this year – mainly standalone – but if there is a petrol station we will definitely open it there as well, but mainly we are looking at standalone… (we) will be investing Dh300 million to Dh500 million in expansion; for recruitment, each store roughly requires 10 employees so you can say an additional 300 employees.”

Enoc currently owns 170 outlets and the new outlets will take the total to 200. In its attempt to expand its footprint in neighbouring countries, Enoc has awarded Bahrain and Saudi franchise rights where it’ll open five and two more stores – respectively.

The fuel retailer is also expanding its food and beverages unit by acquiring franchises of American and European food majors.

It has acquired franchisee of American brand Paavo’s Pizza for the GCC and an Italian café shop.

Sulaiman Al Hayas, Franchise and F&B Manager, Enoc, said the group has opened six stores across Dubai and will open three more by the year-end.

“We plan 60 outlets across the region as we have GCC master franchisee. We are in discussion now with investors from Saudi and Qatar and I believe will sign contacts this year. We are going for standalone outlets. We have one such in JLT Cluster and one in Palm View. We are negotiating another brand from US and will finalise by the end of the year. We are new in F&B business and looking to expand strongly.”

Its other retail units are services stations, Tasjeel, Pronto Café and Autopro .

For the Italian café, the group is looking for new locations and will open 2nd outlets on Palm Jumeirah by September 2015. It already owns one in Boutik Mall in Abu Dhabi.

Enoc’s Group CEO Saif Humaid Al Falasi said Enoc is to open 50 stations in the next five years.

“We have around nine in the construction phase and plan to open 10 each year in 5 years… we will have 110 in five years.”

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.