Opportunity might have been more plentiful in 2005 in Dubai, when dining and nightlife outlets weren’t a dime a dozen. But Kuzin’s perspective has not changed.
“There is a lot of competition. The market [in Dubai] is definitely not easy, because a lot of places are opening all the time. At the same time, the tourism is growing also. So it is not an easy market as some may think, but it’s a very good market to be in. Dubai is a stable market compared to most markets in the world right now actually,” says the founder.
It is because of the latter that Kuzin has big plans for his brainchild. He casually mentions that the group is opening two to three venues by the end of 2016, with several launches planned for 2017.
Of the new launches, some are home-grown concepts, or ‘khome grown’, as the Russian calls them.
“One of the concepts is going to have Uzbek cuisine mixed with Arabic dishes. We’re also opening a crab restaurant called King Crab, and a seafood venue called Seafood Kitchen,” says Kuzin, before announcing extra expansion plans in Saudi Arabia.
“We are bringing a few of our brands from Dubai to Saudi Arabia — like Novikov. It’s opening in Riyadh soon. There are a lot of Saudi customers here and a lot of Saudi customers in London are very loyal to the brand. They really like the food, really like the concept,” he states.
Restaurants and nightclubs are not the end of the line for Bulldozer’s Dubai takeover, however, as Kuzin reveals a boutique hotel is in the pipeline for the city. Considering the current economic slowdown in the city, it seems Kuzin is swimming against the tide. Still, he faces common market challenges that make his progress all the more difficult.
“Rent is going up like crazy in Dubai. That’s because a lot of people are looking at the market and every brand worldwide wants to be here — so everyone who has money wants to open F&B [in Dubai]. People think it’s a fun business — which it’s not. But it’s a very interesting business,” he says.
“There are a lot of offers in the market, so a lot of people coming here are offering bigger amounts of money for the rent — that’s how rent goes up.
“When they are opening, whether they succeed or not, it’s a different question, but the problem in the market is there is always somebody who is ready to pay extra.
“For instance in Moscow now when the situation happened with the crisis, when the rouble went down, a lot of cases happened where the rent was reviewed, because it was not possible for people to pay the same prices.
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