JEDDAH — Asil Attar, the global industry retail and brand development expert joined Alyasra Fashion Group a year ago. The dynamic, Arab-born leader is a global visionary and retail strategist. Attar’s breadth of knowledge has allowed her to experience both sides of the fence, with 20 years of industry expertise in senior executive positions, working within the UK, US, Europe and Middle East with leading luxury groups and brands such as Harrods, Giorgio Armani, Juicy Couture to name a few. Saudi Gazette availed the opportunity to talk to this excellent decision maker with outstanding communication skills and global business outlook. Here are the excerpts.

Q: Please throw some light on your expertise and brands?

A: I have been in the business of fashion, brands, retail and luxury for the last 20 some years, working in London, New York and Europe and Middle East. My focus, throughout my career, has been on product and brand building, business restructuring, development, expansion and talent acquisition. I was based in Dubai for 9 years. I started my career with Harrods and then worked for different brands all around the world. I am originally Iraqi and have a diverse background with some Indian heritage. I was raised between London and the US, this understanding of languages and people gave me a great advantage to understand the different rich cultures, this has been key to my success in the fashion world.

Q: What is your company vision and mission?

A: The vision of Alyasra is positioning us as the No. 1 employer, partner and retailer of choice in the region. We are a customer centric retailer, placing our customer as No. 1. We want to ensure that we constantly offer great customer experiences and excellent customer services. We are passionate about our teams and invest in their training and development and talent retention, to enable us to provide these amazing experiences.

Q: How do you see joining Alyasra group as different, comparative to your previous companies?

A: Alyasra is very accomplished company with 25 years of history and an outstanding reputation in partner relations. With over 270 stores across the Middle East, our brand portfolio represents the global best, premium brands such as the Max Mara Group, Jimmy Choo, Kenzo, Fossil Group and Movado, alongside American iconic brands like DKNY and Cole Haan. We have a strong presence in Saudi with 93 stores, DKNY and our multibrand watches & jewelry stores, under the name of ONTIME and Trinkets the majority.

Alyasra Fashion’s principles and values have been at the heart of our success. These values are more than just ideals — we live them every day, in our dealings with our customers, partners and teams. Every customer deserves a great shopping experience, every time they enter a store. Our team’s commitment to delivering the highest levels of service and standards is what makes us distinctive. When you have such a strong foundation and heritage, it allows you to grow because you use all the experience, you leverage that, its enable you to look at new geographies, introduce new portfolios, look into Innovation and technology to create a new customer experience. The world of retail is ever changing, but we thrive on the challenge of constantly growing and adapting to succeed in this exciting industry, we look at global best practices and set ourselves benchmarks in our own retail space.

Q: As a successful CEO of such a reputable group how much time do you anticipate you need to deliver a successful brand?

A: It depends on different objectives that you have, obviously speed is very important, retail is a dynamic industry, everything is changing rapidly, whether it’s fashion or technology, unfortunately or fortunately we are in the business where we cannot take too much time. We have to be very focused, very defined in our objectives and make sure that we achieve them as quickly as possible without compromising on anything, especially our customer experience. In business there is no limitation and fixed amount of time, you constantly evolve. The most important thing is that you build and surround yourself with strong teams and have a very clear vision. This enables you to become a leader and grasp opportunities.

Q: What is your Saudization & feminization strategy?

A: This is tremendous opportunity for us, and I think its wonderful news, when you empower and enable the local market to be part of the game, it builds success. This is a very exciting time for us, we have already started the process over a year ago with successfully feminizing all of our DKNY and Trinkets jewelry stores. Our teams are dedicated and passionate. We have ambassadors within our business that represent this successful initiative and encourage others to join Alyasra. Moreover, one of our strengths in feminization is that I am an empowered Arab female myself, in a leadership role. I am playing a very active part in this movement, directly involving myself in all aspects, when it comes to recruitment, training, development, career planning, meeting all of the newly joined individuals, participating in leading conferences in the region championing this wonderful drive of Saudization. My objective is to spend fifty percent of my time in the Kingdom to successfully drive and deliver this strategy.

Alyasra is a great organization with women in leadership roles within the business and an Arab women at the forefront as their CEO. This enables me to directly communicate, motivate and encourage the new generation in Saudi Arabia to be part of the fashion and retail industry and for them to see it as an exciting career opportunity. We encourage the new generation in career path development, by engaging and driving performance through respect, ethics and our values. We hope to complete Saudization by end August, InshAllah. This is obviously our mission.

Q: You have so many brands, but do you like to focus on one particular segment?

A: Currently our portfolio is focused on luxury and affordable luxury, we are not in the business of mass market or high street fashion, it’s all about focus, when we see the right opportunity that makes sense we go for it.

Q: What is your opinion about your competitors in the Saudi market?

A: I love competition, it keeps us on our toes, avoiding complacency, staying ahead of the game, gaining market share and always looking at innovation and new ways to win customers experiences. There is enough room and space in the market for everyone, and this is what keeps the industry diverse. Competition enables you to have the best talent and encourages you to learn from others, I think it keep us very dynamic. — SG