Capitalizing On Opportunities In The Global Well-being Market
Mohammad A. Baker, Deputy Chairman and CEO of GMG, shares details of the company’s new global corporate strategy, and the potential it sees in a global wellness market valued at over $1.5 trillion.
What are the rationale and inspiration behind GMG’s new corporate strategy?
For over 40 years, GMG has been relentlessly working to be a trusted partner for growth and innovation across global markets. From humble beginnings in Dubai, today we are a global well-being company, retailing, distributing, and manufacturing a portfolio of leading international and home-grown brands. To continue living by our value of putting the consumer first in all we do, we redesigned our business to reiterate our mission to promote healthier and more active lifestyles through four main business verticals: GMG Sports, GMG Food, GMG Health, and GMG Consumer Goods. As a result of our restructure and global launch, we plan to double our global workforce by 2025.
We recognize that communities and governments around the world have a renewed focus on personal well-being. Additionally, our industries are experiencing significant disruption, whether through climate change, rapid digitalization, or the COVID-19 pandemic. We are prepared to respond to these changes and push the boundaries by developing better products and experiences that change lives.
As a global well-being company, how do you intend to add value to people’s lives?
The wellness market — considered a subset of the wider “wellbeing” concept — has expanded considerably, with McKinsey & Company estimating its value at over $1.5 trillion. Consumers today are conscious of how a brand engages with and adds value to them. The relationship is no longer transactional; they want to be actively involved with brands and be aware of their impact.
GMG will focus investments on active living, nutritious food, and good health. Through GMG Sports, we inspire and empower our community to live healthy and active lifestyles by providing consumers with authentic, highquality sports gear from the world’s leading brands. Our health vertical delivers a 360-degree, holistic approach to supporting consumers’ well-being through
nutrition, pharmacare, vitamins and supplements, and more. In the food sector, GMG is both a food manufacturer under GMG Food, and a distributor for popular food brands, bringing quality and nutritious food to consumers under our GMG Consumer Goods vertical.
The retail sector has undergone tremendous digitalization in the past 18 months. How has GMG responded?
Digitalization has long been part of our business strategy. However, we have greatly accelerated our digital transformation in recent years.
Undoubtedly, the retail sector has undergone massive transformation. With the onset of the fourth industrial revolution, there are significant societal shifts and consumer habit changes. For instance, in China, there is a growing appetite for livestream ecommerce.
In line with the rapid changes and consumer demands, we deployed an expanded omnichannel ecosystem at GMG Sports to enhance consumers’ accessibility to leading sports brands through digital and mobile commerce platforms. We have also adopted a cloud-first approach and started leveraging advanced data intelligence solutions, including big data analytics, to drive innovations in product development.
Such investments have enabled us to serve the consumer better, but also streamline processes, reduce costs, and empower our local decision-makers.
GMG is a well-known retail player, but you are more than that. Where do your other interests lay?
We are much more than a retailer – we retail, manufacture, and distribute. All this is backed by solid R&D, consumer insights, market analysis, and more. We are passionate about what we do, and we constantly try to perfect our formula for success.
For example, our food vertical has grown substantially in the past four decades. Last year, we expanded our food manufacturing division, adding five state-of-theart factories supported by an R&D kitchen and food laboratory in the U.A.E. More broadly, by 2022, GMG will have six dedicated product lines under one roof. This demonstrates our commitment to adding value to the U.A.E.’s economy and supplying customers with fresh and nutritious food, with an objective of helping the country reduce its food imports.
“Living by our value of putting the consumer first in all we do, we redesigned our business to reiterate our mission to promote healthier and more active lifestyles.”
Additionally, our entrepreneurial spirit takes us beyond our core businesses. GMG Ventures includes Trilogi, our logistics arm, which enables us to complete the full circle of the customer journey. We have the capacity to provide air, sea, and land freight solutions including dry, ambient, cold, and frozen warehouse and distribution capabilities.
What is your growth plan for 2022?
We see potential in every market we operate in. A renewed focus on personal well-being is a trend we are seeing across all geographies. We are now maximizing our economies of scale and creating new value for our customers locally. Whether it is acquiring new international brands or developing homegrown concepts, GMG is fundamentally a growth company, and will continue to be.
Asia represents immense potential and growth opportunities for GMG. Our acquisition of multibrand sports retailer Royal Sporting House (RSH) in December 2020 marked our first expansion into Asia. Currently, we offer a robust e-commerce service for RSH in Singapore, but in the future, we have plans to extend this offering to Malaysia by 2022 and the wider Southeast Asia market by 2023.
GMG has introduced over 120 global brands in markets across MENA and Asia. What do you think has made GMG a partner of choice for these brands?
We are proud to work with leading global brands across our four key verticals. We strongly believe that investing in our partners’ success has been pivotal to our success and GMG has grown with them. We have continually innovated new ways to bring superior customer experiences to our partners and customers. For example, GMG‘s partnership with Nike commenced in 1982 and we started distributing its products across the GCC in 2010. In July this year, we launched the Middle East’s first Air Jordan concept store in the Dubai Mall.
GMG is an organization always on the move, and always looking to do what is next. That is a culture that aligns well with the ethos of many of our brand partners.
www.gmg.com