Dubai-based online grocery company Kibsons will start selling products from the Sainsbury’s, the second largest chain of supermarkets in the UK.

Kibsons said more than 500 Sainsbury’s branded products would be available on its website from Thursday (October 15).

The move means Sainsbury’s products including seafood, pizza, fruit, bread, pastry, soups, canned goods, sugar, flour, pasta and rice, will be available in the UAE for the first time.

Richard Hodges, head of sales and wholesale buying at Sainsbury’s Supermarkets said: “Kibsons’ fresh food credentials and excellent customer service are famous throughout the UAE and we look forward to working closely with them.”

Halima Jumani, Director of Kibsons said: “Sainsbury’s is synonymous with high quality and affordable food and we are thrilled to be partnering with them and offering our customers a further enhanced shopping experience. We are extremely excited to launch an initial 500 products, with more to follow in the near future.”

Family-owned Kibsons International LLC has been operating in Dubai as a grocery wholesaler since 1982, launching Kibsons Home Deliveries in 2016 – with its distinctive blue cardboard delivery boxes now a fixture in many UAE homes and on social media.

According to its website, the company employees 500 people and distributes 150,000kg of produce per day.

In the UK, London Stock Exchange-listed Sainsbury’s battles Asda to be the second biggest supermarket chain by market share, with Tesco holding the top spot.

It is the latest British supermarket brand to have a presence in the UAE market.

Luxury supermarket Waitrose, part of the UK’s employee-owned John Lewish Partnership, opened its first stores outside the UK in Dubai in 2008.

Tesco has had a decade-long presence in the UAE, with a range of products available at UAE supermarkets Choithrams since 2014.

(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Daniel Luiz)

imogen.lillywhite@refinitiv.com

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