The concept was developed by Adnani and his brother and the first store was launched at Dubai Media City's Al Thuraya Tower in 2005, after recognising the gap in the market for the store concept divided into a convenience store, its own brand U & Me Coffee and a juice bar.

The incredible response among executives to the ‘on the go' format encouraged the retailer to open at other locations including Al Seef Tower at Dubai Marina and Times Square Centre on Sheikh Zayed Road.
The company plans to open stores of "all different sizes in convenient formats," including its new outlet at the food court of Jebel Ali South and LOB Tower at JAFZA and a 5000ft2 supermarket within Business Central Twin Towers at Dubai's Internet City.

Last Minute will launch its first hypermarket at Dubai's International Media Production Zone, after acquiring the space, by March of next year. The store will target shoppers from the surrounding areas Jumeirah Village, Dubai Investment Park and Discovery Gardens.

"Our concepts are basically catering to commercial areas, we have to keep the format in a manner where young executives can grab something quickly and leave. When we move into hyper formats, we will cater to all sorts of people," Adnani said.

"The layout and formats of the hypermarkets will be the same as what's in the market, but with our concept we will have a lot of non-food products on offer," he added.

Adnani revealed that "we've seen some locations in Bahrain and the negotiations are on".

"We are seriously targeting the UAE and across the GCC. We are coming up with stores for India and we want to go in there in a big way," he said.

The boutique supermarkets have focused on creating a premium look and feel in-store by investing in top of the range POS systems and gondolas to achieve "a different level of shopping", he claimed."

Delayed construction at properties in the city has posed the greatest barrier to expansion, Adnani added.

Bhagwan, the operations manager for Last Minute, stressed that the company's dedicated training teams in the different sections of stores have differentiated its customer service from larger rivals.

The free delivery service currently accounts for 40% of sales at Dubai Media City, Bhagwan revealed, prompting plans to introduce an online delivery ordering service for professionals to order from their offices, expected to go live by January.

Source: Arabian Business

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