Jordan’s Fine Hygienic Holding, a paper products manufacturer, became the largest single shareholder in Dubai’s natural food and beverage company Nai Arabia in a deal valued at over $10 million (Dhs36.7m).
Founded in 1958 in Amman, FHH, which is majority-owned by Jordan’s Nuqul Group, exports its products to more than 75 countries and has operations in Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco.
Nai was founded in 2017 and makes a range of natural iced teas that “are proudly Arabian”, Flavours include white peony tea with peach, mango and jasmine, and hibiscus flower tea with hibiscus, pomegranate and rose. It sells its products in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Canada.
“Nai is doing very well, but if you can bring a strategic investor that brings ground-to-market know-how, procurement synergy, other synergies … it will only increase the value of the total operation,” said James Lafferty, CEO of FHH.
“We are extremely excited to be joining forces,” said Hisham El-Farouki, CEO of Nai Arabia, in a statement. “This is a merger of complementary strengths and will provide both parties with a mutually beneficial relationship. As FHH expands its reach into new markets, it will in turn assist Nai Arabia through its vast commercial capabilities.”
The new collaboration will allow Nai to expand into Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco this year using FHH’s distribution capability. In terms of product range, Nai is planning to introduce an assortment of lemonades in the coming months.
“The great companies in consumer goods are all diversified. Unilever sells laundry detergent and ice cream. P&G sells 15 different categories,” said Mr Lafferty, who spent 24 years working at Procter & Gamble. “We want to diversify and not just solely be a paper products company.”
