Balduccis bites into Middle East

Balduccis, a high-end delicatessen and New York icon, partners with Nakheel to drive its Middle Eastern expansion.

Balducci's high-end food is proving popular in the Middle East.

Balducci's, a high-end food emporium and a New York icon, has partnered with Nakheel Retail to open several stores in the UAE and throughout the Middle East. With a history in the Big Apple that dates back to its Greenwich Village flagship, which opened in 1946, the purveyor of gourmet items has signed a licensing agreement with Nakheel Retail Food & Beverage, a division of Nakheel Retail, to open its first international locations. The first outlets in the Middle East are scheduled to open in Dubai, followed by Abu Dhabi, Doha and Manama. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Nakheel and are excited about bringing our business to consumers in Dubai," said the chief executive of Balducci's, Barbara Parasco. "Our products appeal to a universal audience, not just Americans." The first store is due to open along with the first phase of the Dubai Mall, said Mr Graham Dreverman, the group managing director of Nakheel Retail, but the recent delay of the mall's scheduled opening to October may result in a different Balducci's location opening first, in the Ibn Battuta Mall. The companies are expected to announce several more Dubai locations by the end of the year. "We look for unique concepts that aren't in Dubai and that's why we were anxious to partner up with Balducci's," explained Mr Dreverman. "The folks at Balducci's were very excited to set up their first international locations in the Middle East, and there is no doubt that the people in Dubai will embrace it," he said. Balducci's is one of the best known speciality food retailers in the northeast of the US, where it has 10 stores. Officials behind the deal say this store will distinguish itself from Dubai's established food retailers by offering more exotic or harder to find products. "Nakheel has a policy to partner with the best brands in the world and Balducci's is no exception," said Mr Dreverman. "Balducci's brings with them an outstanding reputation and we are extremely pleased to have entered into this partnership, bringing such culinary and shopping excellence to the Middle East." The Balducci's partnership is the latest of Nakheel's food retail endeavours. Last month, the property giant announced that it had set up a US$800 million (Dh2.93 billion) joint venture to build new hypermarkets with the French food retailer, Auchan. The new HyperCorp firm will initially open five hypermarkets in Nakheel's various Dubai projects. Mr Dreverman said that Nakheel Retail was holding talks with another Manhattan institution, Barneys New York, an upscale department store also owned by an Istithmar, an investment arm of the Dubai Government, with an announcement expected "in the coming weeks". He also said that his company was in negotiations with Australia's largest department store, Myer. @Email:[e-mail]