Introducing coffee culture to Karachi
Dubai: MMI, the Dubai based consumer and leisure brand marketing company, and Gerry's International Ltd of Pakistan have formed a joint venture partnership - Gerry's-mmi (Pvt) Ltd - to operate the Costa Coffee franchise in Pakistan. The first of many planned outlets has now opened in Karachi, located in the Zamzama district, adjacent to the affluent areas of Clifton and Defence. At 3,200 sq ft the outlet is one of the largest outside London and is the first Costa outlet in the region to operate over two floors.
Piers Burton, Head of Leisure Retail at MMI stated, "MMI operates an extremely successful Costa Coffee franchise in the UAE and our expansion into Pakistan ties in with our vision of delivering some of the world's leading consumer and leisure brands across the region. The venture with Gerry's offers tremendous synergies, through the combination of MMI's technical and management experience in operating the Costa franchise and through Gerry's geographical spread, local knowledge and extensive contacts in Pakistan."
The Gerry's-mmi joint venture is managed by Donald MacQueen, who has considerable experience in operating leading franchises across the region. Mr. MacQueen is spearheading the company's rapid expansion plans and is currently undertaking feasibility studies on an additional four sites in Karachi, with a view to opening each of these within the next six months. Once established in Karachi the Costa Coffee franchise will be extended northwards to the major cities of Islamabad and Lahore.
"The opening of this flagship Costa Coffee outlet is a demonstration of the commitment of Gerry's-mmi to deliver international brands with exceptional levels of service to the Pakistan market," commented Akram Wali Muhammad, Chairman and CEO of Gerry's-mmi. "There is a huge section of society who are ready to embrace the international caf culture and with our wide geographical spread and the benefit of being first to market, Gerry's-mmi has the potential to grow this brand very quickly across the country."
Paul Smith, Franchise Director, Costa MENA stated, "The opening of our new outlet in Pakistan is a major step forwards in Costa's international expansion plan and we are confident that we have a bright future in this large market. In particular we are delighted to be entering this market with two very strong partners - MMI, who have already demonstrated their considerable skill and professionalism in the growth of the Costa franchise in the UAE, and Gerry's, who have the on the ground contacts that can identify the best locations and the market forces that will ensure the success of our operation in Pakistan."
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About MMIMMI, a subsidiary of the Emirates Group, is a marketing services company providing marketing and distribution support to the leisure, corporate and consumer retail markets of the UAE and Oman. MMI operates five inter-related businesses - MMI Beverages, MMI Travel and Gulf Ventures, MMI Consumer, MMI Leisure and Costa Coffee, and OUA in Oman. The company represents and retails some of the world's best-known consumer brands, is the franchise holder for Costa Coffee in the UAE, and manages a number of own-brand bars and restaurants, including Left Bank, Seasons and Aprs. MMI Events creates, manages and supports some of the biggest entertainment and community events in the UAE. For further information please visit http://www.mmidubai.com.About Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee was formed by the Costa Brothers, Sergio and Bruno in 1971 in London as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and coffee shops. In 1978, the Costa Brothers opened the first store in London and growth expanded rapidly. In 1999, MMI brought Costa to the Middle East and North African region with the first store being launched in Dubai. Today Costa has over a 400 stores in the UK and 100 across 9 countries in the MENA region.
About Gerry'sGerry's has the distinction of being one of the largest aviation groups in Pakistan and is now ranked as Pakistan's largest travel, air cargo, information technology, telecommunication and aviation concern. Employing staff strength of 1,300 people, Gerry's is honoured to represent a number of international airlines which include Virgin Atlantic, Kenya Airways, KLM, Royal Caribbean, Oman Air, Garuda Indonesia and Cyprus Airways. Through its nationwide network of offices, Gerry's Tours represent major international tour companies such as Royal Caribbean and Trafalgar Tours. The group also operate the Marhaba service in Pakistan's major international airports in a further collaboration with DNATA.
Gerry's also takes pride and pleasure to represent world renowned all cargo airline - FedEx Inc. offering air express and cargo services. In addition to GSA representation, Gerry's also maintains the country's only fully privatized ground-handling operation at all the major airports in Pakistan, under joint venture with DNATA, which is a part of the Emirates group. Included in the portfolio of Gerry's is an Information Technology company which includes Gerry's Net - an Internet Service Provider, Gerry's DSL- Broadband operator, Gerry's Satellite & Media- Telecom provider and Gerry's Softlogic. Gerry's are also the distributor for Dell Computers in Pakistan
For further information please contact:
Angela Manthorpe
MMI Dubai
Tel: +9714 209 5000
Fax: +971 4 225 1766
E-mail: angelam@mmi.ae
Synora Van Drine
Concept PR
Tel: +9714 390 3947
Fax: +9714 368 8053
E-mail: press@cpr.ae
© Press Release 2005
