French retailer Casino plans to develop a franchise chain in Qatar and Oman.

The company is expanding its presence in the Middle East through a new partnership with local retailer Al Meera, which operates 28 supermarkets in Qatar.

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Al Meera will be responsible for developing the network of Géant hypermarkets in the two countries.

A spokesperson from Casino outlined why the Middle East is an attractive region to invest in.

“There is still low penetration of modern distribution, a presence of premium customers due to a high number of expatriates and the country’s wealth, ongoing construction programmes for buildings and shopping malls requesting food distributors.”

Casino has had a presence in the Middle East since 2001, through ten franchised outlets with Retail Arabia in Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE. In September the company announced plans to open five hypermarkets and 30 smaller stores across its key Gulf markets of Bahrain, the UAE and Kuwait.

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