Dubai – MENA Herald: Home Centre, the largest home retailer in the Middle East, today kicked off its milestone 20th anniversary celebrations by unveiling plans to expand its regional presence through the addition of over 50 new stores over the next five years.
The Dubai-headquartered brand has grown from a single store opened in Sharjah in 1995 into an international network of nearly 90 stores spread across 10 countries and occupying a total space of 4 million sq. feet.
The brand shared its business highlights and future growth strategy at a press briefing hosted to commemorate the 20th-year milestone.
Attributing its leading status to the versatile product offering, affordable pricing and customer-centric approach that have been the cornerstones of its business strategy, Médéric Payne, CEO of Home Centre announced the brand’s plans to invest more than AED1 billion over the next five years to strengthen its presence across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Home Centre will also remodel over 40 existing stores in the region, fortify its existing supply chain and enhance its warehouse infrastructure.
While continuing to strengthen its existing market presence, Home Centre will also explore expansion opportunities in countries such as Kazakhstan, Morocco, Kenya, Algeria and Angola, both through organic growth and new franchise operations. The brand’s projected expansion will create around 3,000 additional job opportunities by 2020.
In a bid to adapt to evolving customer needs, Home Centre aims to introduce a wider offering over the next five years to include a range of innovative products, a lifestyle range of home storage options, modular furniture concepts, as well as completely new product categories.
Médéric Payne, CEO of Home Centre, said: “Twenty years marks a significant milestone for a home-grown brand like ours that has today evolved to become the region’s preferred home shopping destination. We started with a vision to provide customers with high quality products at affordable prices and today two decades later, customer satisfaction continues to remain a prime focus for us.
In our endeavour to extend an exceptional brand experience, we ensure that our product range is aligned with global trends, while continuing to cater to our diverse local customer base as well. We also routinely reformat our store design and enhance our customer service experience in line with new technology and changing trends that sweep the home retail market.”
We have ambitious plans for Home Centre in the next five years. We will increase our store count and retail footprint by 50%, while venturing into new markets. This expansion will fuel Home Centre’s next phase of growth.”
Furthermore, Home Centre is gearing up to launch an online platform on 20 September on www.landmarkshops.com/homecentre. The site will enable customers across the UAE to browse and shop for more than 2,500 products ranging from furniture to household accessories from the comfort of their homes.
The user-friendly online portal will provide high resolution product images coupled with accurate descriptions of Home Centre’s inspiring collections. Customers can expect a seamless check-out experience that will make shopping even more convenient.
Payne added: “While the brick and mortar format will continue to be important for Home Centre, our foray into the online shopping space is strategically aligned to bring greater convenience to our customers and in future, help the brand reach out to new customers without the constraints of geographical boundaries. We believe that e-commerce as an avenue has strong growth potential and this is an important step towards our goal of offering our customers a complete omni- channel experience.”
Top benefits of shopping on www.landmarkshops.com/homecentre:
- Shop anytime, anywhere – Shop for Home Centre products at any time of the day
- Cash-on-delivery – In addition to making payments through credit or debit cards, customers can choose to pay by cash once the product is delivered
- Enjoy next day delivery - If an order is placed before 3pm from Saturday to Thursday, a faster delivery experience is ensured
- Easy Returns – Returns are extended to a generous 30-day policy for online purchases only
- Earn & Use Shukran – Registered users can earn and redeem Shukran points on all online purchases
In the last two decades, Home Centre has invested in building strong and enduring relationships with its customers. More than 80% of Home Centre customers are reported to be loyal to the brand, with studies indicating that on an average, a Home Centre Shukran member visits one of the brand’s stores at least three times a year.
Home Centre has been consistently ranked among the top 50 brands in the Middle East Global Brand Simplicity Index. In addition to this accolade, it maintained its Superbrand status for three consecutive years in the UAE (2010-12), as well as once each in Kuwait (2010) and in Jordan (2012).