Al Othaim Holding Selects Oracle® Applications to Help Drive Corporate Expansion Strategy and Strengthen Local Presence


Largest Grocery Retailer in Saudi Arabia Identifies Oracle Retail Platform as Key to Enabling Growth and Compliance of its Operations

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 -- NRF 97th ANNUAL CONVENTION & EXPO -- Al Othaim Holding, the largest grocery retailer in Saudi Arabia, has selected Oracle as its strategic IT vendor to support the company's extensive expansion plans, as it aims to double its operations over the next five years and strengthen its local presence. The Oracle® E-Business Suite and a broad selection of Oracle Retail applications will provide a fully integrated retail solution that will serve as the backbone for the grocery chain, allowing Al Othaim to streamline business processes and focus on meeting the demands of the rapidly growing Saudi Arabian grocery market.

Al Othaim owns and operates several different lines of business including retail, wholesale, real estate, shopping malls and a training academy. Its market chains are the company's foundation operating 75 supermarket, hypermarket, wholesale outlet and convenience stores and Al Othaim is committed to offering customers a wide selection of quality food and non-food products at competitive prices, through this network of outlets.

As the largest market in the Middle East with a high proportion of young people and levels of disposable income, Saudi Arabia is the fastest growing fast moving consumer goods market in the region. Grocery and hypermarket sales have increased significantly and the recent entry of multinational retailers is further fuelling the development of such retail formats. To support momentum in the market and drive compliance to corporate strategy and policies, Al Othaim identified a requirement for a single, fully integrated retail platform and supporting best practice processes. Al Othaim identified this as a necessary step prior to its soon to be launched IPO.

Following a competitive tender, Al Othaim selected the Oracle E-Business Suite and a comprehensive set of Oracle Retail merchandising, planning, supply chain and stores applications. Oracle Retail solutions are designed specifically for retailers, offer a breadth of functionality that supports end-to-end retail processes, and have a history of success with other retailers in the grocery and non-food markets, both from a global perspective and in emerging markets.

"Al Othaim Holding requires a proven world-class retail system to achieve our business requirements for profitable growth today and in the future," said Aadham Junaidallah, CIO of Al Othaim Holding. "We are aiming to open more than 50 stores over the next two years and expect Oracle to support this growth by helping to deliver rapid ROI, improve operational functionality and processes, and ultimately support our customer service. With such a diverse range of retail businesses within the complex Middle Eastern retail environment, it was important to implement a single solution with a best practice approach that would support integration requirements now and in the future."

"Al Othaim Holding's relationship with Oracle and its selection of the Oracle Retail platform and applications is a major strategic initiative to invest in the successful development and longevity of its business," said Patrick Bohannon , Vice President of EMEA, Oracle Retail. "We are committed to helping Al Othaim provide a superior shopping experience for millions of customers that shop in its stores annually while also helping the Group deliver maximum value to shareholders."

About Oracle Retail

Oracle is the number one provider of innovative and comprehensive industry software solutions for retailers -- enabling organizations to serve their customers better by applying insight into daily business decisions for more profitable results. With software that provides supply chain, operations, merchandising, store systems, optimization as well as enterprise applications and infrastructure software, Oracle partners with the world's leading retail companies, including 20 of the top 20 retailers worldwide, to transform the economics of their businesses.

About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com/.

FCMN Contact: kevin.ruane@oracle.com

Source: Oracle

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