The Al Islami Foods story began in 1970 with one small grocery shop, known as the Dubai Co-operative Society, at Port Saeed in Deira. The shop also sold razors and laundry products but its founder, Haj Sayeed Lootah, had a bigger vision for it.

He wanted to open a chain of new stores and brought in two people from Egypt to help him achieve that goal: Kamel El-Adil and Hamid Al Bawadi. They set about implementing Mr Lootah’s plan, and each store they opened was a little more ambitious than the last. The second shop, in Karama, was closer to a modern supermarket, and it was followed by new stores in Khalid bin Waleed Road, Defense Roundabout and Satwa. The breakthrough came in 1979 when they opened a hypermarket in Mirdif, which would be the model for all future outlets… Read more >