Businessman Yunib Siddiqui went from having no experience in the food and beverage industry to becoming the man behind the success of Jones the Grocer in the Middle East, visited by the likes of Tony Blair and Hillary Clinton.
Today, the restaurant chain - known for its artisan cheese room, bakery, patisserie, deli, groceries and show kitchen - has 20-plus stores in the region, with system revenues exceeding $32 million, and major plans of expansion.
Speaking to Asma Mustafa Khan on Aaj News' In the Arena, which was aired on Tuesday evening, Yunib said he spent his early years on Hali Road in Karachi’s PECHS neighbourhood.
He remembers his time there fondly – having lots of friends in the Mohalla, and playing cricket on the streets.
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Yunib then moved to the UAE with his family at the age of 9 and later ended up in the UK to pursue a degree in International Trade & Development from the London School of Economics.
A subdued ‘inner voice’
In 1990, he was working at Cooper Lancaster Brewers (now Grant Thornton) in London, but a visit to Kenya ended with him bringing back a container to the UK filled with handicrafts and carvings - and thus was born Besmo Products.
The decision was a swift one, he said.
“The good thing about being young, at least in my case, is I didn’t have an inner voice telling me: don’t do this, don’t do that. That voice was quite subdued. I went with my gut and just did stuff. Looking back at it now, I don’t know if I thought about it a lot.”
He soon found himself supplying to big names like Selfridges and Harrods.
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“The business did really well for 16 to 17 years. We were selling handmade statues from Zimbabwe and South Africa. But then the Chinese came along. They would take our samples, resin-mould and sell them for as little as 40 cents in much larger volumes.”
This also coincided with the private equity takeover of the UK high street, he recalls, which eventually resulted in the likes of departmental store Debenhams and other retailers going bust “because their balance sheets were loaded with debt”.
Besmo Products’ bottom line suffered too, and Yunib ended up closing shop in 2007. Around that time he was visiting Singapore, where he heard that Jones the Grocer, an Australian brand, was opening up.
He liked the concept, and on a flight back home ended up reading a two-page spread on the business. He thought to himself: “this was fortuitous – I have to do this”.
He went back to London and began calling all the Jones stores in Australia, leaving voicemail messages. Someone eventually got back to him and set up a meeting in Singapore for three weeks later. He signed a deal to bring the franchise to London, but he happened to be flying back via Dubai, and that changed everything.
“Two of my friends who were at Abraaj at the time convinced me to open Jones in Dubai instead,” he said.
“They told me: Dubai is the best place, forget about the UK, everything is finishing there – we’ll fund it, we’ll help you”.
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His wife was hesitant at first – he had three sons who were well settled in their London life.
But Yunib was convinced this was the right thing to do. His wife got on board, Yunib took a small mortgage on his London house, and much like the swift decision to start Besmo, he moved to Dubai.
Starting from scratch in Dubai
Things were off to a bumpy start. Two of his investors pulled out last minute and he had to re-mortgage his house and plug an US$800,000 shortfall.
“Nobody in Dubai wanted to see me. This was in 2009 before the crash. Everyone was investing in real estate, rents were crazy and I struggled,” he remembers.
The site he eventually settled on for the very first Jones the Grocer was one the likes of Starbucks, Neros and Boots had rejected. But Yunib decided it was the best place based on his research, which was non-traditional to say the least.
He looked at the tenancy mix of the adjacent building and found some very rich and influential people lived there. There was also a travel agency in building who told Yunib it issued mainly business and first class tickets to the people in the area.
Still skeptical, he started keeping track of the types of cars in the car park, counting the number of Porsches and SUVs – “it was clear all the models were expensive cars so I said this has to be the spot,” he said.
Things picked up from there. The first store opened in 2009 followed by 6 more in the following three years. And now there is no looking back.
“We started off as being franchisees for the Middle East but we’ve now acquired the global IP and as of 2019 own the brand globally,” he said.
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There are outlets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Shajrah and Al Ain in the UAE.
Branches also exist in Qatar and Egypt plus seven new locations are set to open in Saudi Arabia, India and Qatar over the next six months. The next step will be heading to the UK.
Unfortunately though, there is no plan to come to Pakistan at the moment.
“We have had lots of dialogues and talked to numerous parties but it’s a challenge to go to Pakistan.”
He said challenges are around importing ingredients because while Jones aims to source locally, a lot of its key ingredients come from all over the world.
“Also the infrastructure and setup currently in Pakistan doesn’t lend itself perfectly to our operations yet, but we are always open to ideas.”
To watch the complete episode, click here
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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