UAE’s Camel Chocolate Brand Al Nassma Partners With Global Duty Free Retailer

UAE-based Al Nassma, a camel milk chocolate brand, has announced a partnership with global travel retailer Gebr. Heinemann.

The artisan camel milk chocolate brand will now be sold across most of the major duty free outlets, the company said in a statement.

As part of the deal, Al Nassma chocolates will be made available at airport duty free outlets in Istanbul and Vienna. It will also be sold in ships operated by MSC Cruises, which is one of the largest cruise operators in the world.

Further point of sales will be launched this year-the statement said- though the company did not specify any locations.

“Since our company’s launch in 2008 we succeeded to establish ourselves as a local brand in most duty frees in the Middle Eastern region,” said Martin van Almsick, general manager at Al Nassma Chocolate.

“Partnering with Gebr. Heinemann gives us the opportunity to enter new markets and to grow from a local brand into an internationally meaningful player.”

Al Nassma has presence in selected outlets in Asia and at most of the duty free outlets in the Gulf region. The brand also announced points of sales recently in France, Austria, and Qatar.

According to a travel retail survey published by the Middle Eastern Duty Free Association, around 20 per cent of all duty free customers are looking for gifts, boosting the growth of products that are suitable as presents and souvenirs.

“We believe that nowadays, customers are looking for luxury and exclusivity rather than for mass products,” said Rüdiger Stelkens, purchase director tobacco and confectionery at Gebr. Heineman,

“With brands like Al Nassma we manage to address this customer expectation as we can offer refined and exquisite products representing the luxury segment in confectionery as well as in gifting, adding value to the overall shopping experience of each customer.”

Confectionary is one of the top selling products across airport retail outlets and especially in Dubai.

Sales of confectionary at the Dubai Duty Free surged 12 per cent to reach Dhs520 million in 2013 and was the fifth most sold product.