MEGAMART

Retailer with strong social commitment

Babasons-MegaMart continues to provide high quality services with competitive pricing to their customers, ensure environment sustainability and contribute to the community while expanding its business

More than two decades of success h ave s e c u re d B a b a s o n s - M e g a M a r t a h o u s e h o l d n a m e i n Bahrain. In 1993, Babasons, backed by the internationally renowned T Choithram Group of Companies, set up their first grocery store at Salmaniya. With high standards of quality and service inherited from Choithrams, Babasons-Mega Mart c o n t i n u e s t o b e o n e o f t h e l e a d i n g supermarket chains in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Today, with 14 Mega Marts and two Macro Marts, Babasons-Mega Mart is one of the biggest retailers and distribution networks with imports from Australia, the UK, the US and South Africa. It prides itself on serving the local community with the highest quality fresh produce from around the world and its ultra-modern, European style supermarkets. Post Covid era, Babasons-MegaMart is now stronger than before and for that, they have expressed their gratitude to the Bahrain government and the community. “Bahrain government has done commendable work at mitigating the spread of Covid-19 virus, ensuring protection of all residents by offering free vaccines and by supporting the businesses through various reliefs. We are working to return the kind gesture by increasing our community services and to optimize our expenses and upgrade our stores to better hygiene standards in order to protect our consumers,” said Mr Anil Nawani, General Manager for BabasonsMega Mart. By 1996, Babasons-MegaMart expanded into three outlets with the addition of two stores, one in Muharraq and the other in Hamad Town. Motivated by strong market demand for a bigger, better department store in the Kingdom, in 2000, it presented B a h ra i n w i t h i t s f i r s t s i n g l e b i g g e s t department store covering a 50,000 sq. ft. area in Lulu Center. This store continues to provide ample car parking space and all that the shoppers need, under one roof. By 2002 another store in New Juffair was added. This covers a 30,000 sq. ft. area and is within easy access of the American

Naval Base. The product profile caters to the demands of Mega Mart’s growing American and European clientele. In 2011, anticipating market trends and the busy lifestyles of customers, a smaller version of the stores was developed. This provides essentials, faster quality shopping and a handy location. Thus, Mega Mart Express was introduced at Abraj Al Lulu and is around 6500 sq ft. Its success has prompted the opening of an outlet at Galali in 2013 with an area of 7500 sq ft. and another at Segaya in 2014. Mega Mart Segaya has now become well known for its chaat & sweets counters, hot food deli and take away meals. In 2016, Mega Mart Amwaj was inaugurated in Amwaj Lagoon followed by another outlet in Budaiya in 2018. In 2020, 2 outlets were added in Sanad and Bahrain Financial Harbour. Mega Mart BFH offers an outdoor seating area and in addition to daily essentials, it offers salad bar and good selection of take away meals. This year, 2 new outlets in Busaiteen and Sehla have been added. Busaiteen outlet is located in the center of new and old B u s a i te e n t h e re by p rov i d i n g a n e a sy access to communities in both these areas. “Further expansion plans continue for the future to cater to our growing client base,” added Mr Nawani.

Mega Mart and Macro Mart’s aisles feature an impressive assortment of brands; one of the most popular is Tesco products from the UK. Other internationally recognizable brands include Tate Lyle, Natco, Ocean Spray, John West and much more. In addition to import brands, it also has a wide range of food products under inhouse brands such as Goodness Food, Baba and Gold. “We intend to serve all communities with a range of products from fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish and fresh bakery products. This differentiates us uniquely as retailers from our competition. Recently we have also developed our inhouse brand “GOODNESS FOOD” range which caters to all customers with a combination of good quality products with pocket friendly prices,” said Mr Nawani. The various communities in Bahrain are small so it is challenging to have all the agencies and to bring goods directly from manufacturers, thus, to meet consumer expectations we have mixed containers coming from Europe, the US, Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and India. This ensures every community has options in terms of brands and products. Due to direct imports and no ‘middleman’, costs are kept low, which therefore does not affect consumers and we are able to offer better prices for consumer needs, according to Mr Anil Nawani, General Manager Megamart. Prices throughout Macro Mart and Mega Mart are cost-effective and competitive and currently all supermarkets in its network BAHRAIN GOVERNMENT HAS DONE COMMENDABLE WORK AT MITIGATING THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 VIRUS, ENSURING PROTECTION OF ALL RESIDENTS BY OFFERING FREE VACCINES AND BY SUPPORTING THE BUSINESSES THROUGH VARIOUS RELIEFS MR NAWANI

are performing impressively, owing to carefully selected locations that have been strategically designed to cater to consumers in the vicinity. Through changing times and trends, the primary focus for Babasons-Mega Mart is their customers and their principals while continuing to serve the communities in w h i c h t h ey o p e rate t h e i r b u s i n e ss e s . The company has remained firm to this philosophy and pledges to always be dedicated to it. Babasons-Mega Mart continues to build on its strengths and capabilities to maintain their position as a leading name in the hearts of customers and partners, fulfilling their mission to deliver absolute customer satisfaction in terms of product quality, range and competitive pricing. To increase its reach to the customers, it is also exploring e-Commerce platforms such as Instashop, Talabat and has its own mobile app in the pipeline. “At Babasons-Mega Mart, we care about the planet and environmental sustainability, so this year we have initiated a series of activities to do our part for environmental sustainability such as community beach cleaning, waste management and recycling, promoting reusable bags, etc.” says Mr. Nawani. “We will continue this initiative and will look into partnerships with reputable organizations to maximize impact,” added Mr Nawani.

T h ey h ave a l s o i n i t i a te d a s e r i e s o f fun activities and competitions under “Goodness Campaign” to engage and reward its workforce. In 2022, they are also planning to apply for prestigious HACCP certification for its outlets.

With Mr Nawani at the helm, the way forward for Babasons-Mega Mart is to continue providing high quality service with competitive pricing to their customers, ensure environment sustainability and c o n t r i b u t e t o t h e c o m m u n i t y w h i l e expanding its business.