Appetite: the evolution of a Dubai-born F&B brand

If you live in Dubai, it’s more than likely you’ve eaten something prepared by Appetite.

Whether it’s at the office, courtesy of Appetite’s food carts and pop-up stations; at an event catered by Appetite; or in one of Dubai’s three 1762 outlets, you have probably played a role in helping the home-grown business to thrive.

Now, with the launch of its latest venture, Appetite The Shop, the company is one step closer to taking over Dubai, the founders reveal to Caterer Middle East.

“We want to conquer the world,” smiles Manar El Jayousi when we meet, appropriately in one of the company’s three branches of gourmet deli 1762. El Jayouchi co-founded Appetite more than 10 years ago with Suzi Croft. The pair met soon after Croft moved to Dubai in 1999 — he had made the leap seven years prior — and tapped into a burgeoning market for wholesome food-on-the-go, starting with food carts visiting offices delivering “proper food” at lunchtime back in 2005.

“We’ve always been about good, healthy food. We don’t add preservatives and we make items as you would at home. We don’t make food for people to put in the fridge for three days — we’re all about fresh food eaten within 24 hours,” Croft states.

“That was our philosophy from day one,” Al Jayouchi adds. “In Appetite, whatever is made in the morning at 6am is finished by 6pm and will not be served the next day. We operate on a 24-hour cycle and that is one of our strengths. It puts a lot of pressure on, as there is only a short period where you can sell, but it is important for freshness.

“We want people to eat the sandwich when it tastes exactly as it is supposed to taste. If you keep it in the fridge for the next day, health-wise it will be absolutely fine but the taste would have deteriorated from where we wanted it to be.”

This window is even smaller at Appetite’s sister company 1762 he explains: “1762 as a concept is the same as Appetite but the food is not in a pack and we only have a three-hour window. This means we have more freedom with the ingredients; the food is not on the shelf, so we can serve items that wouldn’t hold up on the shelf for even half an hour in a package.”

Though business is good (at 1762 it is not unusual to see a queue almost out the door at midday), operating on a 24-hour cycle raises issues surrounding food waste. Croft tells Caterer Middle East that the company “give bits and pieces to charity”, including labour camps, but notes: “It’s getting harder to give food to charity [due to food safety regulations], so we tend to give unsold food to staff.”

Al Jayouchi elaborates: “You have to remember the dangerous side of food management — we don’t know if the cold chain is being sustained and if something goes wrong, we are liable for the product. Even if it’s not being sold, it still has an expiry date of 24 hours after it was made.”

More of a pressing concern than managing food waste is meeting demand. The company shifts 6,000 units per day, which can be anything from a cookie to a sandwich. Al Jayouchi estimates that this means, across the brands, they feed about 4,000 to 4,500 people per day in Dubai.

That number will steadily rise now Appetite The Shop is open. Speaking about the new addition, Al Jayouchi tells Caterer Middle East that this concept was actually the couple’s original idea when they wanted to enter the market.

“We went off track over time but we have come back to the core of what we set out to do, which is a small footprint of high-quality products for busy people,” he reveals.

“The way we look at our business is that we provide food for people on the go, who don’t have time to cook and don’t want to eat fast food; they want something healthy that is value for money. We always locate our brand in areas where we feel we can serve consumers who want and need this. Business Bay is one of them, filled with restaurant-taste clientele,” he asserts.

Croft points out that this location is also ideal for providing deliveries — “we’re focusing a lot on people being able to call and for us to deliver a healthy, fast solution” — and that they want to go a step further than providing healthy options by catering to people with food intolerances and a desire to eat organic.

Discussing consumer demand for these types of products, Croft says: “So many people want to be gluten-free, and more people are going vegan, so we’re introducing a vegan range and a lot of raw items, such as our new raw carrot cake.”

She adds that she tries to source locally and organically where possible, reporting that this is easiest when it comes to vegetables and herbs. When asked about suppliers, she reveals: “I would love to tell you that we use free-range organic chicken but the reality is I would have to triple the price of the chicken we sell.We can do that for some small amounts, so for example our egg mayonnaise is made using free-range organic eggs, but we haven’t got to that level yet with our chicken.”

Al Jayouchi adds that sourcing organically is not as difficult as it used to be 10 years ago when there were far fewer suppliers operating in Dubai in general, and says he sees suppliers’ costs coming down slightly in this respect.

“When we started I was not sure the organic drive was going to last and I was more resistant to it than other trends because of the associated costs. It’s usually two or three times the cost of non-organic, but those prices will come down as competition grows. Farmers are becoming more aware that this is an interesting element to supply,” he shares.

He believes the concept of eating healthily has evolved into specialities for which there “is good demand”, such as gluten-free, vegan, raw and carb-free, as part of a consumer shift. “I see less alcohol being consumed by the younger generation and they care more about what they eat, in terms of how natural it is. I think that is driving the market; this is their era and we have to cater to that,” he says.

Clarifying how F&B purveyors can interpret what it means to offer healthy options, Al Jayouchi comments: “There is healthy food as in diet and healthy as in pure; we are more into the pure, clean food rather than claiming that if you eat our food you are going to lose weight. Natural food is healthy food by default and that’s where we are trying to focus.”

Croft agrees, adding that it is this type of cuisine that is incredibly popular in Dubai. Sharing her thoughts on the topic, she says: “The Dubai food scene is very competitive and it’s evolving. Dubai is beginning to get more home-grown concepts and it’s almost getting back to basics, with the food truck revolution.

“Everyone is more about simplicity than going to five-star restaurants these days. No fuss and really good food that has not been messed with or is pretending to be something it’s not. Transparency and simplicity is what’s really going on right now, and that’s what we’ve always been about.”

On the topic of volumes when comparing retail sales, office sales, and catering and events, Al Jayouchi says it is important that the business maintains balance: “Whenever we see a percentage dominating, we try to even it out — if we are too dependent on retail sales, for example, we will push events.”

The company’s business model has evolved over the past decade as it has grown to incorporate Croft and Al Jayouchi’s ambitions. “In the beginning we started off by supplying gas stations and then we evolved into office sales before going into into Spinneys, followed by Waitrose. The first restaurant we opened was 1762 in DIFC. Events and catering has grown organically. [Overall] we have mainly grown through word of mouth rather than advertising,” Croft shares.

Appetite started with four sandwiches and four salads; now it offers about 72 items. “It’s interesting to see how the dishes have evolved over that time. People started asking for pastries, meals and desserts, and we always listen to the market. I don’t know if you ever stop looking for new ideas and listening to what people want,” says Al Jayouchi, who credits his wife with being the brains behind the food.

Croft introduces new products quarterly, with a nod to the seasons, and takes the approach of complementing, rather than overhauling, the existing menu. “People have their favourites and when we remove items we receive emails asking what happened,” she notes.

The business has received franchising interest from people wanting to export the concept, but Al Jayouchi says he is wary of jumping into unfamiliar markets. Perhaps that could change though as he observes a growing curiosity in the Dubai F&B scene.

“Exporting concepts from Dubai to Europe is becoming more interesting and you’re going to see a lot more home-grown products expanding in this way in the coming 10 to 15 years. Dubai is very innovative and there are a lot of good people here making the most of opportunities. Europe is saturated in terms of creativity and you can see a lot of people coming here [from Europe], seeing niche concepts that are unavailable there,” he foresees.

On the ease of doing business in the UAE, he believes it is straightforward if you know what you’re doing. “Ten years in, we still face hurdles but you don’t come up against a wall [with no flexibility]. It is expensive but where isn’t? It would cost more in Europe. You just need to talk to the right people and have the right questions,” he reasons.

Croft concurs, stating: “Dubai is amazing if you have entrepreneurial spirit, a good idea and you see a gap in the market. It’s definitely fun but it’s been a lot of hard work. Nothing comes easy so you need to have a strong work ethic — F&B is hard work.”

With plans to “slowly but surely” branch out into Abu Dhabi, and the probability of more Dubai outlets in the future, it doesn't seem like the hard work will be easing anytime soon, but, as Al Jayouchi notes with out time drawing to a close: “This is the nature of the business.”