KHOBAR - Delta Marketing Company (DMC), under the leadership of Sheikh Hassan Ibrahim Alireza, opened its 7th Adidas flagship store - the biggest in the Middle East - in Rahid Mall Extension, Al-Khobar last June 3. DMC was established in 1984 and has 2 main divisions - Water and the other Sports & Leisure. The Sports & Leisure Division, headed by Tony Kassis, consists of two distinct businesses; one being ‘fitness' and the other ‘retail'. Retail being handled by M. Rizwan Siddiqui. The retail operates 2 types of stores in all the 3 major cities of the Kingdom, selling premium sports brands. One is a multi-branded concept stores known as Deltaz, formerly known as Racquet Shop and the other is the Adidas concept. “Our association with Adidas started over 10 years ago purely as an authorized retailer. Then we advanced the relationship by opening 2 stores; one in Jeddah and 1 in Al-Khobar.” “However, we started to shift our focus and divert all our resources in the expansion of the Adidas retail concept when we opened our 3rd Adidas Store in 2005 in Riyadh. The results from this new store and the support from Adidas Emerging Markets increased our confidence level in the brand and prompted us to open 5 more Adidas stores including this one.” “Today, our relationship has been cemented even further by signing a strategic partnership agreement with Adidas making Delta Marketing Company their preferred franchisee partner in the Kingdom to open Sports Performance and Originals Stores. “I am happy to inform you that we are embarking on a very aggressive expansion plan where we are going to open 13 more stores by the end of 2011 taking the total number of Adidas Stores to 20 of which 3 would be in the Eastern Province.” Rashid Mall is by far the most successful mall in the eastern province which is not only visited by the local residents of Al-Khobar and Dammam, but it is equally popular amongst people coming from Bahrain and other neighboring countries. The mall management is also doing a wonderful job in continuously driving the traffic.
