Amidst the increasing competition for Malls, a major industry player wanted to look for opportunities to expand its operation geographically within Lebanon
Four locations were pre-selected as the most promising for such an expansion.
NECG’s mission was to compare these locations and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each (no in-depth financial analysis or sales estimates were requested by the client).
Several criteria were used to establish the comparison between the locations:
The supply side analysis (existing and upcoming competition),
The demand side analysis (catchment’s area demographics: population size and characteristics, income levels and spending per capita, tourism inflow and spending levels, etc.),
Risks inherent to each location,
Location fit with our client’s image and culture,
A grading model was built to evaluate the attractiveness of each location along each of the criteria defined above. In addition, retailers’ opinions and their readiness to move to each location were taken into consideration to reach a final ranking of the locations.
In conclusion, one location provided the highest potential for a new outlet, while two others were to be watched for future developments, and the last location was permanently ruled out.
In order to conduct the above, NECG relied on primary sources of information (Field interviews with key players and Government Agencies such as the Ministry of Tourism, CDR, Solidere, etc.) and on secondary sources (Internet searches, Government publications: CIS, CDR, etc.)
