In line with their expansion plans, leading online food ordering platforms, hellofood and HungerStation strengthened their operations and footprint in Saudi Arabia through a newborn strategic partnership. The merger was recently announced by foodpanda, the global group that originally started the brand hellofood in March 2013, and aims at consolidating the company’s market leadership in the region.
Under the leadership of Ebrahim Al-Jassim, Founder and CEO of HungerStation, both brands will continue to operate in the Kingdom to cater to the different segments of the Saudi population and offer the largest variety of food outlets and restaurants. The partnership will bring together a strong dedicated team to lead the operations and provide better services and food offerings to the more than +20 million Saudis residents currently covered by the platforms in more than 47 cities across the Kingdom.
“foodpanda is always on the lookout for strategic opportunities, to combine the best global operational practices with great successful entrepreneurs, obtaining solid local market knowledge and strive to bring the most convenient food delivery experience to our customers” said Co-founder and COO of foodpanda Global, Felix Plog.
“hellofood and HungerStation have already proved the effectiveness of this merger in just three months; we can already foresee the prosperous future of this partnership,” added Plog.
Anass Boumediene, Managing Director of foodpanda Middle East commented: “This merger presents an opportunity for two market leaders to combine their skills and expertise to further provide enhanced services and food offerings for our customers in Saudi Arabia.
“With Ebrahim’s ambition and great entrepreneurial spirit, coupled with our diverse operational practices we can set assure that this partnership is the perfect successful combo for Saudi Arabia,” added Mehdi Oudghiri Co-Managing Director of foodpanda Middle East.
“With the experience, resources and technology that foodpanda brings to the table, we are very excited and ready to take the next big step in order to provide a world class service and experience to our growing customer base in Saudi Arabia.” said Ebrahim Al-Jassim, Founder and CEO of HungerStation. “We have worked very hard during the last years, in developing strategic alliances with the main players in the food industry and building trust among our customers. That together with our working ethics and culture helped us to become the leader of online food delivery in Saudi Arabia, leading to this great opportunity to join hands with hellofood.”
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia represents a unique opportunity for unmatched growth in the online-food-ordering platform. The online food ordering industry will continue to grow, and could possibly become the fastest growing industry in the e-commerce arena. HungerStation and hellofood will
certainly be capitalizing and feeding this growth, as online food delivery gradually turns more into a ‘norm’ rather than a differentiation.
HungerStation and hellofood remain committed to the Saudi market and are set to outgrow the online food industry, by continuing to expanding into new cities, introducing new complimentary services as well as partnering with more and more food outlets to ensure it meets all consumers’ tastes.
foodpanda entered the Middle East in March 2013 under its hellofood brand. Further, the company operates the food delivery businesses 24h in the United Arab Emirates and Otlob in Egypt.