The current financial climate may put a cap on major expansion, but it could also force landlords to give young brands a chance.
Nigel Witham, a chartered designed who runs his own design practice, noted that F&B fit-out business had not dried up — it was just coming from a different quarter.
“We have had…projects cancelled because of the recession,” he admitted. “On the other hand, there’s never been a better time for smaller clients to acquire premises from institutional landlords who wouldn’t usually return their calls.”
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Dana Jallad, Dubai owner of the Sugar Daddy’s Bakery franchise, agreed that landlords would “take more chances” with new F&B brands in the current climate.
“Business is slow but it’s a good time to look at locally-grown brands and see where they could do well,” she asserted.
UAE brand Coffee Planet business development director Robert Jones added: “Leasing managers of malls traditionally don’t wish to support [small] brands, instead favouring international brands which are more widely recognised but, equally, stale. However, in the recent months of downturn…leasing managers have become more amenable.”
Witham said it was a situation where “the downturn had advanced an adjustment that was due anyway”.
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