Saudi Arabia among Gulf region’s leaders in potential for retail markets, according to the management consultancy AT Kierney, behind Kuwait.
Armina Ligaya in the National cites Dan Starta, MD of AT Kearney Middle East:
“…While there were still opportunities in the Emirates, many brands had already made their mark, while Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were less saturated.”
This seems an appropriate note of the changing economic winds in the Arabian Peninsula. After the Dubai world crisis revealed that the Emirate was a financial house of cards built on a foundation of sand, Saudi Arabia emerged relatively unscathed from the global economic downturn and invested its wealth more intelligently.
Indeed, Mr. Starta in the National article notes that the UAE in the last decade or so was a “great learning experience” for retailers.
Not only is Saudi’s population young, the Saudi population continues to become more educated as the middle class grows in the Kingdom.
Investors, meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, are the most confident in the gulf – with the UAE the least confident, the bank HSBC said as discussed in this Businessweek article. This will be crucial to getting the next wave of retailers off the ground in the liberalizing Kingdom.
