Cravia, the parent company of UAE franchises Cinnabon, Seattle’s Best Coffee, Zaatar W Zeit and Roadster Diner, will be slowing down its expansion plans. It will be closing down three outlets this year, which will bring the total number of shut down outlets to six since it began operations nine years ago.
“We have some branches that didn’t work, whether it’s because of the crisis or not is irrelevant,” Walid Hajj, CEO of Cravia, told Emirates Business. “Sometimes you make wrong choices in locations, but the idea is to stay healthy instead of digging yourself deeper into the hole. If you have about 50 outlets, you are supposed to have a few that are not working.”
“A big mistake that a lot of firms make is that even if they are losing money, they find ways to fix it. For me, although it hurts to close them, it’s better to do that than keep sinking money into it.”
The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia-based United Group, currently has 46 branches (47 branches in June when it opens its third Roadster Diner restaurant), and employs 730 people. This year, it has planned only three new openings compared to last year’s 20 openings. More.
