GMG is making a return to food production, particularly in processed meat and seafood, with the rebranding of its Farm Fresh meat. The UAE major conglomerate is also launching new Saporo spice brands. The Gulf Marketing Group is keen to expand in local cooking convenience marketing.
Saiher Zaka, GMG Brand Director, said food is a major area of focus for the new generation of GMG’s leadership, especially over the past two years. “This has led to the establishment of six state-of-the-art factories in the region over the past 18 months. The most recent has been a Himalayan pink salt factory here in the UAE. It produces salt for sale under the Saporo brand, and there are also other factories for processed chicken, seafood, spices etc.”
Zaka said Farm Fresh has been the target of major rebranding in the past year. It carries some 250 SKUs, including various processed chicken products, as well as eggs and dairy items. GMG wants to capitalize on the rapidly-growing cooking convenience or ‘life in the kitchen’ trends that emerged since the pandemic with this return to a food focus.
Roy Nasrallah, GMG VP Marketing, said Life in the kitchen has definitely changed a lot since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with many consumers navigating the kitchen in a much smarter way than before. He acknowledged that people are looking at various screens for directions, whether it is YouTube or TikTok, or others. People need products that are convenient to handle, but hands-on. Nasrallah said Farm Fresh wants to offer this, it has been designed for use with air fryers, in an effort to keep up with the trend of healthier cooking as well.
Zaka believes it’s important to remember that since the pandemic, consumers are also increasingly health conscious. “So deep frying in oil may not be the top choice of cooking for these people. Air frying has emerged as an alternative for those who want the crispness and texture of frying without the oil, and we are well aware of this preference and that most consumers now have air fryers in their kitchens, hence we made all of our products compatible.”
GMG is also launching mono-spices through Sapora. Zaka said the spice blends are meant to make cooking easier for consumers.
