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Herfy Food Services enjoyed outstanding success in 2003, confirming Herfy’s position as one of the leading Saudi fast food companies. Sales in 2003 grew by 8% and profitability by 11%, compared to 2002.
During 2003, Herfy successfully opened a number of new restaurants in Riyadh and the Gassim region. Plans are in place to open 10 new domestic restaurants during 2004.
The Company will continue its franchise expansion strategy into neighboring countries that began with Bahrain in 2002. In 2003, franchising agreements were signed to operate Herfy and Al-Mahatah restaurants in the GCC countries UAE and Kuwait. Many other franchising requests are being currently studied.
 Almarai has an excellent reputation for quality and was the first dairy cow farm in the world to be awarded ISO 9002 Quality Certification. There are now 50,000 milking cows across six diary farms, all of them well established and equipped to international standards.
The new Herfy-owned factory for production of maamoul and Rusk came on-stream in the second half of 2003.
Construction also began in 2003 for a major beef and chicken meat processing plant to supply Herfy’s restaurants with its needs. This Herfy processing plant is expected to start its commercial production during the first quarter of 2005. |