According to Shuja Jashanmal, group chief officer for department stores at Jashanmal National Company, the retail behemoth is set to aggressively expand its regional footprint with the opening of its first store in the Mall of Oman.
“Strong bilateral trade relations between neighboring countries have existed between tribes and ruling families in the Lower Gulf region since pre-nation times.” Both the UAE and Oman are fully developed countries that will continue to prosper and strengthen their economies based on bilateral trade and opportunities, according to Jashanmal.
In terms of stability, a growing local market, and a positive outlook, he said Oman has become one of the most important markets. “We at the Jashanmal Group will continue to invest in both countries and bring to market the high-quality products, services, and stores that we have become known for over the last century,” he said.
Since 1919, Jashanmal has been a pioneer in retailing in the Gulf countries, with a presence spanning the GCC from Iraq to Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. Over the years, the brand became well-known among GCC nationals and residents as a company that provided high-quality products and services to improve people’s lives in the Gulf.
“We have many Omani customers who have visited our stores for decades, especially in Bahrain and the UAE, and have written to us many times over the years asking us to open stores in Oman. We established a distribution company in Sultanate 20 years ago and began supplying many brands to Omani retail chains and hypermarkets,” Jashanmal explained.
According to Jashanmal, the company decided to expand its retail footprint into Oman about five years ago, and as a result, it signed a deal with the MAF Group to open its first store in the Mall of Oman. However, the world had to deal with the Covid-pandemic before the mall could be completed, and all new mall or store plans had to be postponed for another 2-3 years.
“With the new Jashanmal store at Mall of Oman, we hope to provide Omanis and residents with a customer-centric and personalized shopping experience.” The group’s aggressive retail expansion strategy includes the opening of this store, which reaffirms our commitment to the region’s retail environment. Oman is a wonderful country with a diverse population, and we are honored to be a part of it. Our products have been curated from around the world to meet the expectations and aspirations of every customer,” he added, catering to the tastes of different generations.
“The store layout has been designed to give customers more choice, more brands, and more pleasure each time they visit us with our new concept stores.” This is only our first store, and we’re already looking for new locations where we can focus on our core competencies of providing premium products and services in the categories of home, dining, kitchen, gifts, and travel.”
As new trends emerge, the brand as a whole is strategically navigating its operations, prompting them to launch its own e-commerce platform. “Our strategy has been to give both online and offline shopping channels equal attention and resources. Even within our stores, we have successfully implemented digital transformation strategies and provided customers with omnichannel experiences. We were able to tap into a new set of customers by diversifying our portfolio of brands in the home, kitchen, and gifting categories, while also giving our loyal customers more options to shop from,” Jashanmal concluded.
