UAE lends a big hand for small bites

The Life: From popcorn to polymers, the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development is supporting a new crop of local entrepreneurs. We met up with a few to discuss the challenges of starting up and expanding business.

“We target Europe because it has big volume and population,” says Khaled Thani, the chief executive of Popular Popcorn. Delores Johnson / The National

From creamy caramel to coconut and cream, Popular Popcorn has built its business by packing interesting flavours into small snack packs of popcorn.

The company, which is based in the UAE, has previously worked out deals to distribute its products in local grocery stores, petrol stations and even on an airline. Now it is popping up in Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait, while eyeing another region - Europe.

"We target Europe because it has big volume and population," says Khaled Thani, the chief executive of Popular Popcorn.

But like hundreds of small and medium businesses that have been launched in the UAE over the past four years, Popular Popcorn has not been able to expand on its own.

Popular Popcorn and more than 350 other companies have turned to the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Developmenteither for funding support or a guiding hand, and sometimes both.

About Dh600 million (US$163.3m) has been committed so far by the Khalifa Fund for start-ups in a variety of sectors, including food distribution, handicraft making and information technology services.

The organisation, which got its start by focusing on enterprise development among Emiratis in Abu Dhabi, has been expanding its reach into other areas. This year it opened offices in Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Ajman.

Some local entrepreneurs are also benefiting from the Khalifa Fund's recent push to stimulate start-ups in the industrial and manufacturing sector. Under its Tasnea programme, which began operating this year, the organisation has provided some Dh55m to companiesincluding Seaman Technochem.

Seaman plans to open for business next year in Kizad, a new hub that is designed to help to diversify the capital's economy into manufacturing, logistics and trade. The company is gearing up to sell polymers, which would be mixed into products such as paint or cement to strengthen building materials for construction.

"The science was very difficult," says Majid Murshed Al Shehhi, the operation manager for Seaman.

Yet Mr Shehhi notes that transforming the technology into a business was also challenging, and he credits his brother with first looking into the idea and reaching out to the Khalifa Fund. The brothers then received support while creating a plan on how to target potential buyers and break down their marketing pitch so it was easily understandable.

Another bonus for them is that they were able to fast-track certain processes for securing land in Kizad, thanks to their contacts at the Khalifa Fund.

"They skipped a lot of steps for us," says Mr Shehhi.

Certain growing pains of running a new business cannot be avoided, though. Both Khaled Thani and Najeeb Thani, Popular Popcorn's chairman, are staying out of Europe until they can get a better grasp of their chances of success there.

"Right now we have the strategy of going to exhibitions," says Khaled Thani, who rattles off a list of forthcoming events the company will attend to gain exposure, including the Abu Dhabi Film Festival and a fair in Germany. "We'll get ourselves exposed to the market and secure [distributors]," he says. "We have competition."