Working with Spinney’s on their first-ever standalone food hall venue was a rewarding experience for us at TGP.
As one of the UAE’s oldest and most established fresh food retailers, collaborating with them on their journey toward high-quality, ready-to-eat, and elevated food offerings was a significant step in showcasing the potential of the food hall model within an increasing number of major Retail, Dining, and Entertainment (RDE) developments, such as Dubai Mall.
Aligned with our mission to redefine food halls and unlock their benefits for both clients and urban communities, we were thrilled to explore how this concept could integrate into the company’s extensive portfolio of food retail outlets.
PROJECT INSIGHTS
A departure from their traditional offering of fresh food grocery stores across the UAE and Middle East, Spinneys shared their aspirations to diversify their portfolio and elevate their ready-to-eat food offerings.
Drawing on their supply of fresh high-quality ingredients, delicatessen elements, and food stations within their existing stores, the wish was to blend retail and dining to offer something dynamic—something aligned with the new generation of food halls rapidly reshaping dining experiences across modern urban developments.
As a brand, Spinneys already holds significant influence in the region, but the challenge was to leverage this credibility while enhancing their reputation as providers of immediate, ready-to-eat, and future meal solutions.
By working closely with the client to understand and build an F&B strategy that realised their vision, we combined our expertise in retail and hospitality to conceptualise an exciting hybrid food hall. During this process, we explored a range of design approaches and considerations to create a space that incorporated powerful elements of successful food halls while grounding the concept in Spinneys' existing consumer base and product offerings.
REALISING THE VISION
The vision was to create a space that would be recognised not just as a grocery store, but as a destination for convenient, high quality and delicious meals, reinforcing Spinneys' reputation in the UAE. When building the strategy, many of our key recommendations centred on:
- Positioning the venue to cater to 'food for now' and 'food for later' needs, featuring a variety of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook options.
- Adapting the food hall model for Spinneys already diverse offering of in-house F&B stations, such as Spinneys Kitchen Café, hot food counters, salad bars, sandwich counters, juice bars, sushi bars, the Asian wok bar, the smokehouse, patisserie counters, fresh fruit bars, and ice cream counters.
- Supporting the company’s overarching vision to become the preferred provider of convenient, healthy, wholesome, and delicious meals in the UAE.
- Developing a hybrid “Grocerant” meets food hall concept that could be replicated in as many as 15 locations in the UAE by 2028, offering dine-in or take-away options within a high traffic retail space.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS
Given the entrance's slightly obscured location from the main thoroughfare at Dubai Mall, we prioritised designing a prominent, open façade to attract and entice customers into the new space.
To offer both variety and quality, we framed much of our advice with the need to design a configuration that would offer a diversity of offerings as well as product depth within each station.
Special attention would also need to be given to the functionality and flow of these stations, ensuring a seamless customer experience, whether customers are dining in at the Asian wok bar or taking away from the Japanese Sushi bar. We also advised on the importance of achieving visual cohesion across each of the stations, creating a consistent and appealing aesthetic.
OUTCOME
Joining other major UAE malls, such as Nakheel Mall where we delivered the acclaimed Depachika food hall, we’re seeing the success of clustered F&B offerings like The Kitchen by Spinneys grow—achieving key commercial goals for stakeholders and providing added value to consumers.
Speaking about the launch of The Kitchen by Spinneys, Sunil Kumar, CEO of Spinneys, said: “Our first-ever standalone dine-in concept is proof of our ambition to harness the dynamism of the UAE’s foodservice sector, reinforcing our unique value proposition while expanding our high-quality, health-oriented offering. By incorporating this new experience into our growth strategy, we are diversifying our offering in our core UAE market and creating new and exciting ways to serve our communities.”
