Saudi retailer takes lead on hiring women for lingerie stores

One of the biggest retailers in Saudi Arabia has taken on more than 700 Saudi women for its lingerie shops this year and wants half the workforce to be female within two years.

Fawaz Alhokair Group, based in Riyadh, operates more than 1,000 stores across the Middle East and plans to employ 3,000 Saudi women in the kingdom.

"We have recently employed over 700 Saudi women through the conversion of our lingerie stores into woman-only working environments," said Simon Marshall, the chief executive of Fawaz Alhokair. "We have also converted some of our head office roles."

Fawaz Alhokair manages three lingerie brands in the kingdom - La Senza, La Vie En Rose and Oysho.

This year, the Saudi government began enforcing a requirement that staff in lingerie and cosmetics shops be female. The move has helped to increase sales in stores and put an end to awkward conversations between female shoppers and male assistants.

But Mr Marshall said this was just the first step in empowering and employing Saudi women. He wants to start employing Saudi women in Fawaz Alhokair's major mass-market branded stores such as Zara, Gap, Marks & Spencer and Promod.

"We are looking to convert [more than] 100 stores, including brands such as Monsoon and Promod, to Saudi woman-only staff," he said.

Most of Fawaz Alhokair's stores are "family only" stores, which single men are not allowed to enter. Men can enter the stores only with their families.

"We have more than 6,000 staff working in our stores in Saudi Arabia and strive to have 50 per cent of those staff as Saudi women within the next two years," said Mr Marshall.

Fawaz Alhokair holds about a 50 per cent share of the fashion segment in the kingdom.

Khalid Alkhudair, the founder of Glowork, a recruitment company for Saudi women, said Fawaz Alhokair was leading the retail industry in hiring Saudi women.

"Not only in the retail industry. In general, there's huge demand for Saudi ladies," he said. "The problem is not that there are not any jobs, it's that women and [human resources] departments are not finding each other."

Mr Alkhudair said Saudi women could expect a government-enforced minimum salary of 3,000 riyals (Dh2,938) per month. Expatriate men can earn as little as 1,500 riyals working in stores.

But there are a number of possible stumbling blocks to Fawaz Alhokair's employment plans, including a ban on females driving in the kingdom, and a culture of Saudi women staying at home, Mr Alkhudair said.

"There's the barrier to driving, but not only that. There [is] a segregation of men and women law," he said. "But retail companies are putting in good career paths for these women."

rjones@thenational.ae

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