By: Abdul Kader Saadi, founder and managing director at Glee Hospitality
Glee Hospitality Solutions, a hospitality management and consultancy company, was established in Dubai, UAE in 2009. The company offers a range of end-to-end solutions and restaurant concept development, in addition to the management of outlets across the wider Gulf.
Glee Hospitality has launched over 80 plus F&B concepts, unveiled 100 plus outlets across the region, including the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Kuwait and Jordan among others and manages a team of nearly 300 employees.
As part of its strategic growth, Glee Hospitality also focuses on integral post opening operations/services, which include business development, sales, marketing and operations of F&B ventures in the region. GHS’s expertise includes everything from concept development to financial feasibility, securing locations, interior design, brand identity development, menu development, fit out contract tendering, and recruitment.
In 2019, in line with Saudi Arabia’s 2030 vision and the significant leaps and bounds the nation has made in recent years and our own goals for the future, Glee made the decision to expand our official base of operations by officially launching our Riyadh branch office.
This decision to broaden our spectrum into a key demographic market in the GCC was a pivotal moment for the firm and could not have happened at a more opportune time. Through our combined efforts and the support of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) we were able to cement this wonderful addition to our professional network with minimal delay.
Our aim is to better integrate our resources across our branches (including our Riyadh branch), which includes moving employees and relocating members of our staff to directly oversee our developments in Riyadh. We are currently more focused in Jeddah and Riyadh but have every intention to explore other cities and potential markets as we increase our foothold. Regarding our growth in the Kingdom we remain purely optimistic about our future in Saudi Arabia and intend to pursue and hopefully secure Government tenders in the years to come.
With ripe potential in 2019, we entered the KSA market with a number of promising projects under our roster. Black Spoon is an all day eatery concept, situated at the Zone in Riyadh, where we handled everything from core concept creation to implementation and operation. Sourcing the ex-head chef from Caramel, this eatery boasts an impressive menu with signature dishes such as the Black Spoon salad, signature fries, steak frites and crispy Eggplant.
Another promising project was the launch of Ole at the You Walk where we also directly developed the concept and implementation. This concept boasts specialty coffee an all day breakfast and dessert menu that features delights like the signature baklava cheesecake.
Eklill is an existing Lebanese outlet located on king Fahd branch road, Al Olaya, Riyadh that Glee was hired to take on the operational management and support services.
In addition to the aforementioned, we also have a number of projects in the pipeline underdevelopment for 2020. In Riyadh, we are currently developing a number of cafes, healthy eating and dessert concepts as well as a full-on F&B strategy for an investment group. In Jeddah we are developing a Lebanese, burger and quick service restaurant concepts. Our other main objective will be to get involved on some new exciting hospitality projects being developed by the government.
