The UAE's appetite for fast food is the driving force behind a long-awaited 350,000 square foot food packaging facility due to open at Dubai Investments Park next week.
The packaging company Hotpack said yesterday that its new state-of-the-art Dh100 million factory and warehouse facility at the Jebel Ali park would provide the likes of Burger King, McDonald's and KFC with paper plates, paper bags and straws.
Hotpack said other clients include Dubai Airport Authority, Emirates Airline, Dubai Duty Free and Lulu Group.
The facility, close to the new Jebel Ali airport, was originally scheduled to open in June 2012 but Hotpack said technical construction delays and "getting various permissions" had set back its timetable by almost a year.
It is set to finally open its doors on Monday.
"Eighteen years ago when the group was founded it had little idea that it would be at this stage delivering such a long list of products to the market," Abdul Jabbar, the managing director of Hotpack Packaging Industries said yesterday at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
"The UAE is one of the fastest-developing countries in the world and has some of the highest standards of hygiene. Big American chains are coming over here, so there is a huge demand for packaging."
Hotpack has 750 employees, annual turnover of Dh500 million, and 10,000 customers around the globe.
It is also opening new facilities at its foam cup manufacturing facility in Industrial City Abu Dhabi and in Doha to cater for the Middle East's burgeoning need for disposable food packaging.
Further, Hotpack said it was in discussions to open an aluminium packaging facility at Bahrain Investments Park and planned to expand in Cochin in India as well as Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.
Dubai Investments Park, a subsidiary of the Dubai-based conglomerate Dubai Investments, said that last year 290 new tenants arrived at the 1.6 million sqft logistics complex, bringing the total tally of tenants within the industrial and commercial zones to 2,715. This represents an 87 per cent increase in commercial space allotments compared with the previous year.
Through the year, 220 warehouses, comprising a total of more than 1.4 million sq ft, were rented out and 54 office plots comprising 87,000 sq ft and 16 showrooms at 100,000 sq ft were let.
Average rents at DIP stand at Dh25 per sq ft for warehouses and Dh45 per sq ft for offices.
In July the property broker Knight Frank reported that up to 1 million sq ft of warehousing space had been leased during the first six months of this year in the adjacent 140 square kilometre Dubai World Central and 56 sq km Jafza free zones as Dubai's new airport begins to increase its functions.
After suffering a slump during the global economic crisis, the UAE logistics industry has emerged as one of the fastest-growing areas of the Dubai economy as companies attempt to supply the hospitality markets in the Emirates.
On Wednesday, the British bank Standard Chartered said that growth in the logistics, hospitality and retail sectors - and not property speculation - was pushing up house prices in the UAE.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
JOKE'S%20ON%20YOU
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MATCH INFO
Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 12’) Liverpool 1 (Minamino 73’)
Arsenal win 5-4 on penalties
Man of the Match: Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal)
How being social media savvy can improve your well being
Next time when procastinating online remember that you can save thousands on paying for a personal trainer and a gym membership simply by watching YouTube videos and keeping up with the latest health tips and trends.
As social media apps are becoming more and more consumed by health experts and nutritionists who are using it to awareness and encourage patients to engage in physical activity.
Elizabeth Watson, a personal trainer from Stay Fit gym in Abu Dhabi suggests that “individuals can use social media as a means of keeping fit, there are a lot of great exercises you can do and train from experts at home just by watching videos on YouTube”.
Norlyn Torrena, a clinical nutritionist from Burjeel Hospital advises her clients to be more technologically active “most of my clients are so engaged with their phones that I advise them to download applications that offer health related services”.
Torrena said that “most people believe that dieting and keeping fit is boring”.
However, by using social media apps keeping fit means that people are “modern and are kept up to date with the latest heath tips and trends”.
“It can be a guide to a healthy lifestyle and exercise if used in the correct way, so I really encourage my clients to download health applications” said Mrs Torrena.
People can also connect with each other and exchange “tips and notes, it’s extremely healthy and fun”.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Result
UAE (S. Tagliabue 90 1') 1-2 Uzbekistan (Shokhruz Norkhonov 48', 86')
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Angela Bassett, Tina Fey
Directed by: Pete Doctor
Rating: 4 stars
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
More from Armen Sarkissian
Company Profile
Company name: Yeepeey
Started: Soft launch in November, 2020
Founders: Sagar Chandiramani, Jatin Sharma and Monish Chandiramani
Based: Dubai
Industry: E-grocery
Initial investment: $150,000
Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year
Haemoglobin disorders explained
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.
