Clarks made a name for itself kitting out generations of children with school shoes but now the company is making a leap to more forcefully challenge its mainstream rivals across the Arabian Gulf.
The British shoe seller's business is split between large markets that do not very grow fast, and small, rapidly expanding markets that are becoming increasingly important.
In the United Kingdom, Clarks has about an 11 per cent share of the total shoe market, and 30 per cent of sales of children's shoes. But growth is slow.
In the Middle East, the company sells around three quarters of a million pairs of shoes annually. This is a small proportion of its 55 million pairs a year worldwide - but sales are growing at about 15 per cent each year.
"In the scale of Clarks, [the Middle East and Africa is] one of our smaller markets but it is growing very fast," said Clarks' global chief executive, Melissa Potter.
Once associated with more mature women and young children, the company underwent an image makeover about three or four years ago to bring it more up to date. "It was really inspired by the fact that we see growth opportunities outside of the UK," said Ms Potter.
"I think Clarks needs to keep up with our consumers, so as we were moving outside of the UK, and we wanted to sell more to consumers in the UK as well, becoming more stylish was very important because most people think about style first and then they think about comfort."
Clarks hopes to open an office this year to support the growth in the Middle East, added Ms Potter, who visited the UAE last month to meet representatives of the brand's long-time partner in the region, the Jashanmal Group.
"We have had a very small team working here for the last couple of years who have done a fantastic job of supporting the growth here but we are just going to put a little more resources behind it and open an office in Dubai to better serve the Middle East and Africa," she said.
Clarks opened three stores in the UAE last year, two in Abu Dhabi, at Mushrif Mall and Al Wahda Mall, and one in Dubai, at Mirdif City Centre, bringing the total number of its stores in the country, which are managed by Jashanmal, to 14.
The company believes there is scope to open a further "five or six" stores in the Emirates over the next five years.
"We're also looking to grow in Saudi Arabia," said Ms Potter. "We have about 11 stores there. We think there's probably opportunity to do about double the number of stores in Saudi over the coming years."
The brand aims to almost double its regional footprint from 58 stores to 100 outlets.
"It's always difficult to make predictions too far into the future, but I think the Middle East is going to continue to be a fast-growing market for us, certainly into the next five years," said Ms Potter. "We would say we have got in our plan that we want to continue to expand in the Middle East in the next five years. I think that will be very possible. This is my first visit to Dubai and it's extraordinary."
The company has been selling shoes in the region through a partnership with Jashanmal for about 40 years. It began about the time a member of the Clark family, Nathan Clark, invented the desert boot after seeing British army officers wearing suede boots with crepe soles that had been made by cobblers in Cairo.
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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- 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The specs
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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