I have posted earlier about a Juice company and said will discuss the market potential. So i don’t know if you guys have seen the Fresh Juice Company plastic bottles that get sold in the Coop’s mostly in front of the main entrance or next to the cashier, so i made some research and get this; its a huge market out there!

This small company that has about 4 small trucks to deliver the drinks all over Coops in Kuwait and Sultan center sell about 2500 bottles a day with 10 employees, will get to the numbers in a minute. Their operation is very primitive but efficient and do sell a lot of fruit. They have no large machinery to chop the fruits but more manual labor. With true honesty i thought that it would be dirty and i would blow into oblivion in this post but the what i found out is the opposite. Clean employees and a sanitary work place, all the employees have their heads covered and wearing thick gloves. Fruits are all well packed and cleaned well and then all stored in large fridges (can be seen in the pic).

The company has great potential to grow, from a branding perspective to new products. With such reach the company has, they can educate the customer base they sell to about anti-oxidant drinks and immune booster, and many more examples (the one i would like to see is dates drink). The plastic used and the sticker that introduces the product need change. New markets can be approached like the government school cafeteria instead of these kids drinking soda all day. They claim that the best selling outlets are the ones outside Kuwait city, like Qurain and Subahiya Coops and all Sultan Center outlets.

Selling 2500 bottles a day is fantastic and surprising, they sell their products at about 350 fils. Lets do some rough calculations.

350fils * 2500 = 875KD a day lets say half is their cost at 437.5KD with a net profit a day of 437.5KD and * by 26 business days = 11,375KD for a months work, thats nice.

There is a market out there and huge potential for many business idea’s other than cupcakes and khalageen:p think about how the market is untapped and is filled with juices that are not fresh and have to be delivered all the way to Kuwait and priced much higher (snapple, tropicana).

All i see is cup cakes and accessories, every Kuwaiti lady thinks she can make a better cup cake and a better “shaba9a”. I ve been thinking of writing of such a post a long time ago, its killing me that the only creative thing is cup cakes and accessories. Believe me Kuwait has a larger need to be served.  What blew my off is a new place that makes basbousa only, OMG khalas with the stupid specialization stores! what now a place that specializes in the chocolate chip used in cookies, why am i imagining a bimbo reading my blog thinking WOW thats a great store to open in the avenues!!!

What benefits does these stupid business fads create, ask your self any potential benefit for the economy? any export potential of products, which means more other currency being converted to Kuwaiti dinar? any Kuwaiti job creation ? Nothing!

You get bombarded by these new exhibition places showing you products and services created by Kuwaitis, again more cupcakes and khalgeen, nothing solid. I would like just one thing that shows creativity, a potential for growth? Why do i complain so much because from a venture capital (VC) perspective you need an idea with steady growth, something different which creates a new market, not eating away from the same market share and just reducing the profit margins even more. Dont get me wrong if you can produce the same product for much cheaper prices (budget business plan like jazzeera airlines) then yes by all means go ahead but this is not the situation. VC’s would like to inject cash in a business where potential for growth can be seen and based on a stringent business model and not a recipe! or my style is such and such! When I say cash im talking about a start up capital of 100,oooKD, a sum of money where a budget and cashflow is required and working with auditing firms. These type of business are not khalageen or accessories idea’s.

Again i dont blame them because the enviroment and our surrendings are not set to produce such industires like technology and products,  but we still can try to come up with something better than a cup cake.

Ending the post with a bomb shell, my sister owns Frost Cup Cakes  

The last time i visited Mais el Ghanim was before they made their new store next to the Saudi embassy, so i was looking forward to eat their when a friend proposed it for a dinner outing. I was always amazed with the capacity of tables it presented from the windows facing the gulf road, i have passed Mais el Ghanim several times and thought it surly needs a large kitchen/operations to handle such volume. In Lebanon i have visited similar restaurants that had a huge capacity and that the emolyees use tobrag about the restaurants by meters squared saying ” ee ma63am 800m2 ow bekafi 150 shakhis” :p. So i got the same attitude in Kuwait, and yes it was huge compared to Kuwaiti restaurants anyways that’s not what my post is about; its about the hand held devices that the waiters where using to take the orders. A smart decision maker who made such an idea take effect. Speed to him was a main concern, which many business owners in Kuwait do not understand. You got to service your customers Fast!! you have to think of every way to cut down on redundant or iterative time. I guess the decision maker of the hand held devices calculated how many minutes the waiter wastes by going to the kitchen and giving the chef the paper, then the chef needs to read the paper and pass it on to the sue chef the the paper falls in the soup:P laa qawiya masakht’ha. Yes i may sound ridiculous to non business lean people but that’s the way you calculate cost of certain services, you go in detail of the detail. Again remember now the waiter is using an electronic devise, where human error is minimised by taking the order in an electrical form, then submitting the order in less than a second to the kitchen, now the extra time the waiter has on his hands can be utilized to waiter other tables and service other tables. The whole idea behind a dinne-in restaurant is to utilize their tables at peak times; lunch and dinner. Meaning the more you lounge at the restaurant the more they loose othercustomers waiting for a table. Again a smart move by an unpredictable place: Mais el Ghanim.

PS Wagamama intoduced such a technology in the food sector.

Sorry for not blogging for a while, just came back from an amazing holiday in Lebanon. A country filled with rich history and beautiful landscape, and Beirut a mini cosmopolitan city. What made me blog today was an article i read in the BBC, where the FDA in the states approved the cloning of cattle meat and milk for sale and for the finale: these kinds of meat and milk will not be labeled too! The FDA does not even give consumers a chance to make a choice, how ignorant of them. Why am i pissed, because this (surly cheap meat) will reach our tables and restaurants by mid of this year(this is my own opinion not associated with the BBC). I claim such because Kuwaiti business men are smart and live by the bottom line factor, and nor any head or employee at any of our government sectors is alert to such changes. So we as consumer should become aware and make better choices for our selves and the people around us.

“The FDA based their decision on an incomplete and flawed review that relies on studies supplied by cloning companies that want to force cloning technology on American consumers.”  This quote is from a pressure group rejecting such actions by the FDA, but as usual the dollar prevails.

I’m a regular at costa, nothing against the others but i just like the taste of their coffee, anyways one day i was ordering my coffee at costa and while waiting for the order i noticed a email sent from the management with a reference to all costa employees it said: “No employees are allowed to take a holiday starting from December 1st to the 8th of January.” There reason was that they are expecting higher sales due to eid and the new years holidays, WHO does not expect an increase in a spending in such times. What bothers me here is that half of costa’s employees are Christan’s and the end of December to them is a religious and family oriented holiday. I cant understand how such a company can make such a decision and ruin its employees holidays, believe me such tactics will back fire and only profit the managers handling such business in the short term. I wish some how that the costa management in the UK can see such discriminative orders.

When growing older you start to think of many things differently just a year ago, then your health takes center stage. Well, from my part i would take such a concern due to the people around me and how health aware they are. What i’m trying to say here is that many companies around the world try to relate their products to health concerns, like the cranberry juice crazy craze in the US, when tests showed that cranberry helps the urinary tract, heart disease and cancer. Sales jumped in the states after Ocean spray the original supplier of cranberry juice used such information to its benefit, now before people start jumping about the benefits of tamer (dates):P (you know its Ramadan and the religious ambiance is around)  let me explain that we do know the benefits of tamer (dates) but from a business perspective very minimal information is advertised in such a way. I dont really remember if i have talked about a tamer energy bar, but i have always wanted to produce such a product. The benefits of tamer are amazing but think how clumsy you have to be to unwrap it. Why not a cleaner packaging with the health benefits shown on the side, where the tamer it self can slide out easily without making your hands sticky. Okay i lost track here back to the post, what i wanted to say that KDD should stop sleeping on there heads and cash in on Kuwaiti statistics about heart disease and prostate cancer in Kuwait, red grapes have a certain chemical called Resveratrol. This chemical has many health benefits to humans with treating, heart diseases and cancer, if this untasty Red grape juice from KDD was advertised with such a purpose (offcource that Resveratrol must be present)  sales should climb and heart disease among society decrease. Or is the real questions is that we are not Health aware and our lifes revolve around eating?, from a religious point of view we are responsible for what we do to our body and from a societal view “who the hell whats to lie in Mubarak hospital”…oky lost track again maybe its Ramadan, back to KDD continue sleeping i say:)

Passing by Kanafani in Jabriya for some om ali, i started thinking about how such a simple arabic sweet become advertised on satellite TV. Why did other Konafa places did not come up with the same idea, how come a product like Konafa generate such hype? Let me explain the story behind Kanafani; Before three years ago a young labanese guy working in Deek al roumi wanted to redefine the konafa, after approaching the management they refused such an idea and he got frustrated and applied for Mr Baker and got a job there. The salary difference between Mr Baker and Deek al roumi was 100kd, so after working with Mr Baker he came up with such a konafa, the double sided one and from there Kanafani was launched. Making 4 to 6 k per month and thats only the Jabriya branch. The highest restaurant in Kuwait to sell konafa was Deek al roumi but now things have changed, deek al roumi use to buy 7kg of cheese everyday to make there kanafa, but now Kanafani averages out at 18kg of cheese per day, thats double the highest seller in Kuwait and comparing the history between a 20 + year old restaurant with a 3 year old joint. I truly believe that Kanafani has a great future and a much better opportunity within the GCC region. The management at Kanafani should be praised due to there strong advertisng and product development team, creating new products each 6 months, the round kanafa, om ali and now the kolafa. I’m honestly not a fan of such places that create more unhealthy problems within Kuwait but they did create a strong brand and kept in the market where others have closed down like Kanafanji. Kanafani is a successful business that has the potential to grow into an international chain.

When driving around half residential half commercial Jabiryah and got clogged in the smartest roundabout:p in Kuwait, i noticed the Batriq delivery car with its logo attached to the side and a small writing on the top. I followed the driver around Jabriya then to Ahmadi…j/k he stopped at Mr.Baker in Jabriya and i got to take the picture. A new wording is added to the top of the logo stating “the value of halal”!! we always get the normal halal print but not this and not on a delivery car. Its seems that the management at Batriq are promoting halal food. But surly they have been selling halal food since the beginning. So they are implying that other stores in Kuwait are not selling halal food, and when this comes from management in a restaurant, it seems like they have heard something or some kind of compliant and wanted to capitalize on such a trend. Its like they got some insider information that restaurants in Kuwait are not selling halal food. I mean, we surly as consumers do not listen to information about other restaurants but a restaurant owner sure will.  I have posted earlier about halal food in Kuwait, now other restaurants are promoting how proud they are to serve halal food. Its not being said, its being used as an advertising tool. This may create a new controversy in Kuwait and see other restaurants following such a path.

Again and again we hear news that Kuwait is becoming an obese nation, and we see Doctors on TV explaining how such exposure to fast food is fueling the health epidemic in Kuwait! Our country is full of crap, i for about 4 years do not believe what is said on TV, or from governmental official nor the parliament members. I even promised my self never to vote again. Many in this county talk about progress but the only difference and new things we see are malls and hotels. Its clear to us that progress within the government is not in the agenda any more. Its not that of a difficult agenda to be accepted within the government. The health system is breaking up, electricity is running out, the educational system is failing and the students too. One of the major success factors of NBK is that it always had a stable Board, compare that to Kuwait and you see that each two years that pass we get new ministers and a new parliament, nothing is stable when each new mind set comes in to fix things the whole foundation shakes and rattles and come up with new ministers. (Sorry about the political ventilation but even myself who hates Kuwaiti politics some issue’s get on my nerve) Al rai TV is promoting a new child program which features Ronald Mcdonald the clown as the TV host. So when we use the TV channels to communicate how the health epidemic is on the rise, and at the same time these same TV channels are promoting Mcdonald’s for children aged 4 and above. When at such age young kids get use to the taste of Mcdonald’s food, what happens when they become teenagers or parents! My only dilemma here is why not the Ministry of Health in Kuwait is doing something about it, Why cant we stop advertising such fast food brands directed at children in Kuwait! Or are we in a educatinal time gap that the people heading the country are obsolete tin cans! The ministry of higher education is sending thousands of Kuwaitis on Scholarships to learn become innovative in their fields but as soon as they arrive to Kuwait fully energetic they mix into the slow, lame, unprofessional and inexperienced society. Falling back like all others that have tried to change, we are turning into a trap of Kuwaiti culture that is striping the purpose of life and advancement and the only thing we seek to do is how to live another day in a materialistic Kuwait.

Aghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbakistan all have the stan part in common. Which i guess mean land, but in Kuwait we are the Ma63am’stan. Country with every kind of dish, i guess we got it all, maybe not Jamaican. Anyways when only Salmiyah has up too 300 restaurants aren’t we supposed to have some separate entity that can monitor such restaurants as what goes on in these kitchens. With out even creating any statistics i can be pretty sure that every single resident in Kuwait eats atleast 4 times a week outside. Once in North Carolina, i was a frequent visitor to many fast food joints, and using the drive thru i have noticed an amazing intuitive by the city council there: its was like a label on each drive thru window showing a certain percentage. Some restaurants carried a 96% and some 75%, i think you can guess what these numbers are mean; the higher the percentage the cleaner and more sanitized the place is and such labeling makes a huge difference in your choice of food. Personally i have started to look differently and make choices relative to the sanitation label, if i felt like eating at BK, i would go an extra couple of miles knowing that Taco bell has a higher sanitation percentage. I would love to see such labeling in Kuwait and see how bad our restaurants here are managed! the UK just introduced a new labeling model called the Scores on doors, which follows the same approach by giving stars to restaurants around the UK. 5 stars mean a clean place and 0 stars mean tasamom is free with every order:p