Al Islami Foods Announces Major Management Restructuring


 


DUBAI:  To align with the rapidly growing Halal food mega trend, Al
Islami Foods today announced the key appointments of new Chief Executive Officer,
the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, under company’s new management
and operational restructuring process.


 

Alex Andarakis, the new Chief
Executive Officer of Al Islami Foods, replaced Saleh Abdullah Lootah, who will
now be looking after the overall operations of the company as the Managing Director.


 

Al Islami Foods, the region’s
leading provider of halal food, stated that the new changes would allow the
company to simplify its structure, reduce costs, place greater focus on its
customers and tactically reaching to the BIG 5 plan – a billion in growth plan in
5 years.


 

Outlining the restructuring
process, Saleh Abdullah Lootah, Managing Director of Al Islami Foods, said:


 

‘Al Islami expects a significant
growth in its profits and we are confident that we have the right people and
infrastructure in place to realize this ambition. With demand for halal food
soaring worldwide, we look forward to consolidating our penetration into the
new markets with the experienced teams who have in-depth knowledge of the FMCG
market.’


 

The Al Islami group have
pioneered the development of the Halal Food market both locally and regionally
since 1981, and have constantly been at the forefront of innovation in product,
formats and systems through the development of Al Islami brand, Coop Islami, Al
Farooj restaurants, Al Islami Cart, Al Islami Meat Shops, as well as being the
master franchisee of the popular Egyptian based Mo’men chain of restaurants.

Commenting on his new role at Al Islami, Mr. Alex Andarakis, an Australian, said:
“Al Islami has enjoyed great success on the local market, and now is the time
to further accelerate the development of the company through a dual strategy of
business segmentation and geographic expansion. The opportunity to take this
company through the transformation process and developing it into a high
performance regional and global brand is a fabulous challenge, and one which I
am very confident we can achieve.”


 

Alex, an alumni from the Harvard
Business School and a graduate from the University of New South Wales, is a
senior executive with over 23 years experience in strategic regions such as
Australasia, North Africa, Middle East, Turkey and Eastern Europe.


 

Lootah added that Al Islami
Foods’ decision to undergo restructuring was based on the company’s commitment
to strengthen its strategic operations in major markets and to provide a
consistently positive customer experience – from a diversity of products to
committed consumer relationship system.


 

Other new key appointments
include: Mr. Joachim Yebouet as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Mr.
Michael McGrath as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as part of the new management
restructuring at Al Islami Foods.