JEDDAH – The Saudi Arabian beauty market, the largest in the Middle East, showed double-digit growth lately due to relatively high levels of discretionary income in the kingdom. As such, the sector market has great potential, said John Hooke-Tappin, Event Director at Reed Sunaidi Exhibitions, “but we have to be balanced and realistic in our expectation.” He told the Saudi Gazette ahead of the two beauty and wellness shows to be held in Jeddah organized by Reed Sunaidi Exhibitions that diverse consumer segments - a young population (approx 60% are under 17 years), significant expatriate population plus tourists (more than 7 million) offer tremendous opportunity. Reed Sunaidi Exhibitions is a successful joint venture between the world's leading event organizer Reed Exhibitions and highly experienced local organizer Sunaidi Expo. Analysts forecast that the market will grow by 11 percent year on year. In 2010, Saudi women spent almost SR9bn ($2.4bn, €1.9bn, £1.6bn) on cosmetics, among the highest per capita sum in the world (some 300$ per capita per annum), earlier report said. The “Saudi Health & Beauty” — Saudi Arabia's first international health & beauty show and the “Saudi International Sport and Fitness” (ISF) event will promote well-being and healthy living for the population of Saudi Arabia, while providing the perfect platform for the development of international sport, fitness, health & beauty B2B relationships. The matching events will be held on Nov. 25-28, 2015 at the Jeddah Centre for Forums & Events. Saudi Arabia's sport & fitness industry is in an emerging phase with the number of domestic sports companies growing by 300% in the last 4 years. Supported by the government, the sport & fitness sector requires all types of products, services, and solutions related to the sport and fitness industry, as well as construction and design products, auxiliary services and information providers. The Saudi market is structured somewhat differently to other similar sized cosmetic markets worldwide. The provision of personal care services, like all services, is strictly segregated on gender lines, that is, services for women and men are offered in separate facilities and by same-gender staff. Commenting on the preparations, Hooke-Tappin said “in many ways we are the pioneers in these sectors and we are breaking new grounds all the time. The challenge we face is that due to the conservative nature of the market and exhibitions being a new medium for many, we have to change hearts and minds, while at the same time respect the views and principles of the Saudi people.” Latest available data showed that the beauty product market is expanding strongly. In addition, experts estimate the professional or services market is showing double-digit rate increase. The rapid growth of the hair and beauty services sector means that many salon and spa businesses are very recent. Saudi Arabia is the largest hair and beauty salon (including beauty parlors, ladies centers and barbershops) market in the region. The cosmetic clinic sector alone has grown 10 fold in 5 years. Excerpts from the interview follow: • You joined Reed Sunaidi Exhibitions two years ago, would you tell us more about the main changes that you have implemented? My brief was to launch the two co-located shows, Saudi Health & Beauty and the Saudi Sport & Fitness (ISF Saudi). This was not easy as there were no other shows in these sectors here is Jeddah or for that matter in KSA so we had to start everything from scratch! • What are the major events for Reed Sunaidi Exhibition? Would you tell us more about them? We have a portfolio of several shows such as Decofair, Foodex, Jewellery Salon, MCE, ISF Saudi and Saudi Health & Beauty. The event name says it all apart from MCE which is an air conditioning and ventilation show. I direct both the sport & fitness along with the health & beauty portfolio which in principle focuses of healthy living and wellness. • What are your plans to improve Reed Sunaidi Exhibitions' share in improving Saudi market? What are your growth targets? The plan is to establish these shows and grow them to become permanent fixtures on the yearly calendar in their respective industries. Currently, all the shows are industry leaders in Saudi Arabia and we intend to grow all the shows on average by 20% year on year. Hopefully we will get a bigger venue soon! • Are you thinking of furthe expansion in the Saudi market? Well, as part of a global business, yes we would like to grow continuously and expand where necessarily. However, we need to look carefully at the market and see where there is a need for shows and what the potential for growth is. That will be the determining factor. • How do these events encourage more foreign investments? Exhibitions are generally a platform to brand ones products and to conduct business, so naturally it opens up opportunities to foreign companies looking to enter the Saudi market. With the Saudi government now embarking on a program of diversification, naturally they will be eager to entice foreign investments into KSA which can only be a good thing for the Saudi economy and by extension the people of Saudi Arabia. • You are managing and directing two of the major events, Sport & Fitness and Health & Beauty show. Would you tell us more about that experience especially that that two events achieved a huge success? I do have several years experience in Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medical Shows having been involve with shows in USA, Europe and the UAE, so naturally when the idea was put to me to manage these shows jumped at it. Combining it with a Sport & Fitness show also was appealing as I take personal interest in my fitness and I am a huge sport fan. So everything fell nicely into place. I also worked on several launch shows in the past so I understood the concept. That being said it was by no means easy and we really worked hard to achieve success. Thankfully the shows did well and we are looking forward to a bigger and better show for 2015.
