Luxury Chocolatier Looks to Take LVMH-Backed Saudi Brand Global

(Bloomberg) — Hanging precariously from the tops of towering date palms, farm workers painstakingly pollinate the trees by hand. With around 100,000 palms to fertilize in just days, the pressure is especially intense this spring.

Located 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Riyadh, the farm, owned by a company with links to the Saudi royal family, is plotting a massive global expansion under new Chief Executive Officer Nurtac Afridi.

She wants Bateel International LLC, which is also backed by French luxury-goods maker LVMH, to triple revenues across its cafe and luxury foods outlets by 2029.

The expansion, which will see Bateel’s store count rising to over 500 globally from just under 200 currently, dovetails with a push by Saudi Arabia to diversify its economy beyond oil.

Afridi aims to take dates beyond the Middle East and market them everywhere from New York to Seoul as a healthy snack. 

“We see huge potential for growth over the next five years,” Afridi, who was CEO of luxury chocolatier Godiva until last year and led that firm though a period of robust sales growth, said in an interview. 

Bateel sits at the luxury end of a growing market for sales of the fruit — traditionally a utilitarian staple in the Middle East — and sells elaborate gift boxes of dates stuffed with nuts or covered in chocolate. 

Its Mediterranean-inspired gourmet cafes look to add a Middle Eastern twist to popular classics like date-infused balsamic vinegar, or mille-feuille sweetened with a thin layer of date paste.

Rising demand for dates has caught the government’s notice, and brought Bateel greater attention, including from the kingdom’s powerful sovereign wealth fund. The Public Investment Fund made a play for the company in 2019, but the talks never progressed.

The expansion plans can be financed from internal cashflows, Afridi said. She declined to comment on reports that L Catterton, the private equity unit of LVMH, was considering a sale of its stake in Bateel that was acquired in 2014. “L Catterton has been a long-term partner, and while it’s their decision to make, I think they still see a lot of growth to come in Bateel.”

The early fruits of Bateel’s expansion drive are already showing. A new store opening in Seoul in November was greeted by customers queuing around the block. The firm is scouting for locations across the world.

The plans also entail tripling the number of date palms at its Saudi plantation and building a new factory in the kingdom to boost supplies. The company is already preparing supply chains for the expected growth in the business. 

Saudi Arabia produces three billion tons of dates a year, with around half exported. The kingdom’s wealth fund launched a date-based cola in December as part of efforts to promote its production and exports.

Bateel’s roots go back about 80 years, when Abdulrahman Al Sudairi first planted a date grove in the area. His sister, Hussa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi — who was married to King Abdulaziz, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia — is the grandmother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

To be sure, the firm has no formal links to the Saudi government and is pushing its growth plans without state-support. 

Bateel’s farms challenge the common perception of Saudi Arabia as an arid desert. A company-built dam collects rainwater from nearby mountains, channeling it to replenish underground aquifers — a crucial step toward sustainable farming and preventing the depletion of groundwater. 

Much now hinges on the rapid expansion of these farms. As she surveyed the vast expanse of farmland, Afridi said, “We need more dates, as our sales are already growing 25% per year.”

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