African + Eastern is the Middle East’s leading alcoholic beverage importer, distributor, retailer, and marketing services business. The company operates and services all the Gulf territories, as well as serving Travel Retail and re-export markets across India, Africa, and the Middle East. In all those territories African + Eastern is driven by its vision to be the best possible partner for its consumers, trade customers, suppliers, and employees. This is led from the firm’s headquarters in Dubai.
“I’m working in the most remarkable market environment” says Jason Dixon, CEO of African + Eastern. “I cannot speak highly enough of the way the government and key policy makers in Dubai have driven a vision for this city over the last ten to fifteen years in particular. During the course of my journey from salesman to CEO, I have witnessed a cultural and economic change that is often overlooked by the international media who typically cast Dubai in a negative light. In fact, Dubai is an amazing environment to do business. Most noticeable from our perspective has been the transformation in local Food and Beverage, particularly high-end hospitality, which is now comparable to the best in the world.”
Against that backdrop, Dixon believes African + Eastern has a responsibility to match that level of excellence as a player in the alcohol and beverage sector.
“A+E’s secret sauce is our world-class supply chain and sales and marketing capability, anchored to a comprehensive understanding of the Gulf markets,” Dixon explains. “Apart from our systems and processes, we have a phenomenal organisational culture which we are very proud of and has enabled us to curate a unique team of extremely talented and highly engaged professionals.”
The Right Consumer to the Right Market
Where African + Eastern differs from other distributors, is that it is a category-led business that puts as much work into brand building as if it were a brand owner in its own right. This makes it a valued partner to the brands it works with, thanks to its unique insights into the cultures it is importing to.
“I have worked in most of the gulf markets,” says Dixon. “My career started in Bahrain, then I moved to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, plus a bit of time in Oman with the last 20 plus years in most, Dubai. All of these markets are distinctive. Even though they are united in that they are Middle Eastern markets catering to expatriate consumers, there are subtle differences.”
Each territory has its own taxation structures and demographic makeup, and as A+E caters to its own portfolio it must also cater to the needs of its markets. For instance, Oman is a market with a high of demand for American brands due to a Free Trade Agreement with the US.
Whereas Dubai is witnessing growing potential around premium spirits and high-end wines due to the growth in luxury hospitality.
“There are numerous other examples of how each market has its own idiosyncrasies. We have accumulated knowledge and employ experts with deep insights into these countries,” Dixon says. “It means we are in a good ideal position to talk to these markets about their needs and connect the right brands with the right consumers.”
The “right brands” is a broader category than you might think. Although African + Eastern works with a number of large corporate & smaller independent brand owner partners and frequently looks to emerging trends in other markets, listening to consumers and customers to inform its portfolio decisions.
“We onboard more than 100 new products every year based on these insights to ensure we are able to offer consumers quality products we know that they are looking for, or we think will generate a demand in the near future,” Dixon says. “Craft beer is one such area that we have been investing a lot of time and resource into and continue to look at options across the globe.”
Keeping up with the Changes
While African + Eastern’s in-depth knowledge of the market environment has proven invaluable, that environment is constantly changing, and the company must move to stay in front.
“The operating environment in the region is consistently evolving and requires organisational nimbleness and ingenuity,” says Dixon. “For instance, the recent decision by the Dubai Government to suspend tax on alcohol sales required us to quickly rethink our retail growth strategy to support local government goals, whilst also seizing upon the resultant commercial opportunities for the benefit of our partners, brands, consumers & customers.”
African + Eastern responded to this change by smartly implementing a business transformation strategy that involved rapidly accelerating its retail footprint alongside the launch of a dedicated A+E Online home delivery service.
It has even collaborated with its local competitor, MMI, to support the authorities by developing a chain of retail stores in hitherto hard-to-access communities, catering to lower earning expat migrant workers. This has led to a threefold increase in retail transactions, but beyond the business considerations involved, it has also led to a significant reduction in illegal importation and alcohol-related crime.
“This sort of transformation required tremendous resilience and resourcefulness from our retail, supply chain, technological and financial systems and people,” Dixon tells us.
Talking to Dixon, it is abundantly clear how much he values those people, but also the high standards they are held to.
“We are a difficult company to recruit for – and I say this with pride,” he says. “Every single person in African + Eastern is directly connected to the organisational objectives and hence we are fastidious about who we onboard into the team, and how we do it.”
African + Eastern seeks out energy, curiosity, resilience, and tenacity in its people, but also humility. As Dixon tells us, “Our most successful people are those who are confident yet humble, who want to learn, to admit mistakes, to ask, to stay the course no matter how difficult it may be.”
All of this translates into an incredibly committed community of people with outstanding engagement levels and lengthy tenure with the company. It shows in African + Eastern’s amazing organisational culture and outstanding business performance.
When it comes to retaining those people, the firm has a number of programs in place, aimed at keeping staff engaged and communicating with the company, using partners such as staff engagement experts Kincentric. It is a culture that means that even when people leave the firm, they often soon come back.
And it is easy to see why. The company is currently going through an exciting period of new growth.
“With more positive change expected across the Middle East in hospitality, tourism and population, I think A+E is in a uniquely favourable position to continue being able to leverage our assets, market knowledge and experience and play an even larger role for our brand partners in this exciting and innovative region of the world,” Dixon says.
Dixon is rightly proud of everything that African + Eastern has achieved, but he also makes sure to give credit where it is due.
“None of our success would be possible without the strong relationships we have with our key stakeholders,” says Dixon. “Firstly, we have amazing local and international shareholders who provide the perfect balance of support, advice, scale, and influence. We also represent an outstanding range of world-class brands across all the key beverage categories. These partnerships are at the heart of A+E’s mission and keep us accountable and faithful to delivering our core values and ambitions for future growth.”
