You may not have heard of Alif Investments but you might be familiar with some of its brands, including Emly & Chilli.
The Alif conglomerate, which was formed in 2010 in the UAE, has its fingers in many pies, including fashion and food. Here, the company's chief executive and director, Asif Jabbar, discusses who its products are aimed at.
Why was Alif Investments formed?
Alif Investments was founded by a group of like-minded people driven by their passion and innovative ideas to provide high-end fashion, food and entertainment within the conforms of Shariah. We formed this conglomerate with a strategy to contribute positively to the UAE economy by developing a strong diversified business focusing on the 'made in UAE label' and providing employment opportunities.
Who are your products aimed at?
Our core target audience comprises of Asians in search of tradition, variety and excellence bundled together to provide convenience and satisfaction. But as we have established our presence in this segment we are now planning to scale up and cater to the premium-market segment. Our shopper base has also grown. Where earlier we appealed to consumers from the subcontinent, it has now widened to reach locals, western expats, as well as tourists.
Why set up a conglomerate with such diverse industries?
Alif Investments is poised to take on the world, building on the Shariah business acumen, a modern and innovative outlook. The diversity translates to fulfil the basic needs of the consumer pertaining to food, fashion and entertainment, thus catering to the daily requirements of the average individuals.
Why not stick to one sector?
We believe that each brand that we have launched has a role to play in growing business. Our aim is to provide quality, affordability and value for money to consumers of every strata and every category. Dealing in different brands and in different categories helps us to achieve our objective and at the same time utilise our expertise to develop every brand in to a profit centre on its own.
What are the challenges of running a conglomerate with such a of diverse range of businesses?
When you have so many brands to look after every day is full of challenges. The main challenge is to cater to such a diverse audience from different nationalities and satisfy their expectations. So far, we have managed this well and have earned a good reputation. Dubai has been our testing ground and with the immense learning we have achieved many positive changes, introduced new products, recruited a good team, strengthened our operations etcetera. We are therefore confident that we have gained enough experience and are ready to expand in different GCC markets.
* Gillian Duncan
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Director: Sally El-Hosaini
Stars: Nathalie Issa, Manal Issa, Ahmed Malek and Ali Suliman
Rating: 4/5
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Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Haltia.ai
Started: 2023
Co-founders: Arto Bendiken and Talal Thabet
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: AI
Number of employees: 41
Funding: About $1.7 million
Investors: Self, family and friends
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars
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Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
WHAT IS 'JUICE JACKING'?
• Juice jacking, in the simplest terms, is using a rogue USB cable to access a device and compromise its contents
• The exploit is taken advantage of by the fact that the data stream and power supply pass through the same cable. The most common example is connecting a smartphone to a PC to both transfer data and charge the former at the same time
• The term was first coined in 2011 after researchers created a compromised charging kiosk to bring awareness to the exploit; when users plugged in their devices, they received a security warning and discovered that their phones had paired to the kiosk, according to US cybersecurity company Norton
• While juice jacking is a real threat, there have been no known widespread instances. Apple and Google have also added security layers to prevent this on the iOS and Android devices, respectively
KLOPP AT LIVERPOOL
Years: October 2015 - June 2024
Total games: 491
Win percentage: 60.9%
Major trophies: 6 (Premier League x 1, Champions League x 1, FA Cup x 1, League Cup x 2, Fifa Club World Cup x1)
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“Join in with a group like Cycle Safe Dubai or TrainYAS, where you’ll meet like-minded people and always have support on hand.”
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