As food and beverage ingredients supplier Fresh Express gets set for another year of growth, Ben Watts finds out how the firm continues to meet the demands of the region’s chefs
With a workforce of 130 and a network that stretches across the Arabian Gulf, food and beverage supplier Fresh Express has seen off a tough 2009 and is looking forward to positive growth in 2010.
The UAE-based firm supplies kitchens and hotels with a range of fresh ingredients from more than 54 destinations worldwide. According to business development director John Vouyoukas, Fresh Express is now looking to expand its sales and logistic departments over the coming year, as it continues to bring the region’s chefs some of the best produce from across the globe.
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“We represent massive companies from Europe, and big names from the US and Australia — all firms we have represented for a long time,” says Vouyoukas. “Many new companies come to the UAE and copy us on a daily basis; we are much older then these firms and it seems whatever Fresh Express does, in a week it is copied elsewhere.”
Vouyoukas claims that when other suppliers mimic the firm’s business practices, it actually serves as a compliment to the company — a sentiment echoed by Fresh Express food department sales manager Ali Serhal.
“We are proud to be the pioneers in developing the fresh food industry by always being creative in terms of new products and customer satisfaction,” declares Serhal. “Our main objective is to always bring added value to what we are delivering and keep the standards of quality and freshness in the UAE market as high as possible.”
The company is divided into three sectors — the hotel division, the retail division, and the restaurant and coffee shop division — and today the family-run business, led by Vouyoukas’s father and managing director Costas Bouyoukas, is looking at a bright future.
The firm’s biggest segment, the hotel division, represents 54% of its total sales and despite a slight drop in demand from individual hotels in 2009, Fresh Express actually experienced a 2% increase overall on its 2008 sales.
“We lost a bit of the growth, but not a drop in sales,” confirms Vouyoukas. “But with more tourists coming to the UAE we will definitely benefit.”
According to Vouyoukas, the rapidly-increasing number of hotels in the UAE can only mean one thing — further opportunities for growth.
“We noticed a slight drop in 2009, but we hear from the major airlines that they will be launching a lot of new routes this year and as a result we’re expecting a lot of tourism to come into the UAE,” he comments.
On the basis of such positive reports, Fresh Express is gearing up for a busy year.
“Major people in the industry, including F&B managers, chefs and hotel managers, are predicting this year will be a busy one,” Vouyoukas continues.
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