Essen, 12. October 2018 – DEICHMANN SE is continuing its international growth on a new scale. The company plans to enter the market in the MENA region (Middle East & North Africa) in the next few years. In this spirit, the shoe retailer has entered into a long-term partnership with AZADEA Group. A premier lifestyle retail company that has been operating across the MENA for the past 40 years and currently operates over 50 leading interna-tional franchise concepts in fashion & accessories, food & beverage, home furnishings, sporting goods, multimedia, and beauty & cosmetics. The opening of the first store on the Arabian Peninsula under the DEICHMANN brand is scheduled for 2019 in Dubai.
“We are aiming for further growth and keen to open up new markets. Having opened stores in France and Belgium last year, we are now represented in al-most every country in Europe. So it is time for us to develop further growth mar-kets,” says Heinrich Deichmann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of DEICHMANN SE. “We believe that there is huge potential for our concept of ‘high-quality fashion shoes at an affordable price’ in this region.”
DEICHMANN SE is the largest shoe retailer in Europe and now present in 26 countries worldwide. In the 2017 financial year, the Group sold more than 176 million pairs of shoes internationally in around 4,000 stores and 36 online shops.
DEICHMANN is striking a new path with the expansion now planned: for the first time in its more than 100-year history, the company will be working with a fran-chise partner. “In the AZADEA Group, we are pleased to have found a partner with many years of experience in using the franchise model and at the same time with proven expertise in the fashion sector as well as in the Arabian and North African regions. We see it as a major advantage to be entering a new region closely aligned with a local partner,” says Heinrich Deichmann. “Together with our partner Azadea Group, we first want to gain initial experience in the region, on which the timing of further developments will depend,” he adds.
“We are proud to announce our partnership with DEICHMANN and are excited about introducing an international shoe concept to the Middle East”. Stated Said G. Daher, Chief Executive Officer at AZADEA Group. He adds: “The addi-tion of DEICHMANN SE to our portfolio comes to anchor once again our longstanding promise of continuously offering our customers nothing less than a great shopping experience for the whole family.”
Further information and contact:
DEICHMANN SE
Corporate Communications, Ulrich Effing/Sonja Schröder-Galla
Tel: 0201/8676 – 960 or – 962
ulrich_effing@deichmann.com, sonja_schroeder-galla@deichmann.com
DEICHMANN SE, headquartered in Essen (Germany), was founded in 1913 and is whol-ly owned by the founding family. The company is the market leader in European shoe retailing and employs over 39,000 persons worldwide. Under the DEICHMANN brand it operates branches in Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, Croatia, Lithuania, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Hungary. The Group is also represented in Switzerland (Dosenbach/Ochsner Shoes/Ochsner Sport), the Netherlands and Belgium (vanHaren) and the USA (Rack Room Shoes/Off Broadway). In Germany, Roland SE also forms part of the group. Through MyShoes SE, the com-pany is present in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The company also owns the Snipes Group with branches in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Bel-gium, Spain and Italy.
The AZADEA Group is a leading lifestyle and fashion-focused retailer which holds and operates more than 50 major international franchises in the Middle East and Africa. With over 12,000 employees, its own branches in the respective markets and a comprehen-sive infrastructure, the company operates more than 650 stores. Founded in 1978, the AZADEA Group has developed an extensive network of retail stores and today repre-sents leading international brands in fashion and accessories, food and beverages, fur-nishings, sporting goods, multimedia, beauty and cosmetics. The AZADEA Group oper-ates in 13 countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.