With the dramatic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on both communities and businesses alike, the foodservice industry, amongst many others, finds itself in a transition phase globally. As a regional player based in the UAE, Chef Middle East’s priorities have continuously been about ensuring the safety of our associates, communities and customers while adapting to unprecedented and highly challenging market conditions to maintain and preserve the future well-being of the business.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, we have been determined to build awareness internally and externally through addressing efficient ways to curb the spread of the virus; to implement precautionary measures within the organization; and to secure and ensure traceability of the entire food chain, from our suppliers located across the globe to our customers based regionally. Highest food standards and strict personnel safety and hygiene measures have been and will always remain paramount during and after Covid-19.
In parallel, our supply chain team has been closely monitoring the developments abroad as well as local circulars to ensure a rapid response to navigate any potential challenge and stabilize inventory levels for the current limited but existing demand, and more importantly for the weeks and months to come.
We are now evolving in the most volatile and uncertain environment ever seen in all the markets we operate in, which requires highly adaptive thinking, resilience, energy and agility to be able to redefine business objectives and strategies to implement and achieve while maintaining smart cash flow management practices to keep a business afloat. It takes leadership, active collaboration and creative solutions to steer a ship in such troubled waters and come out of it forceful.
In the effort to adapt to the current situation and diversify our activities to add new income streams and grow our brand presence, we’ve decided to conquer a new segment of the market for which the activity has hugely intensified over the past few weeks, and officially launched our new B2C e-commerce site, ‘Chef ME at Home’ (www.chefmeathome.com). The aim of this platform is to provide a unique access to top restaurants quality ingredients to consumers – cooking enthusiasts and home chefs – at a very affordable price with a wide and exclusive offering.
As a company that also cares for giving back and supporting the local community through this challenging situation, we have taken it upon ourselves to actively participate in different corporate social responsibility initiatives conducted by customers. Naming the “Helping Hands” movement from Alabbar Enterprises – Retail, Food and Beverage, by providing food supplies that were used to safely prepare and deliver meals to feed those currently in need; and “Pay It Forward” programme from “Al Serkal” in partnership with “Inked Dubai” to cook and provide meals for front liners across the UAE.
Though the current situation has proven difficult during these trying times, we, at Chef Middle East, are confident that we’ll emerge from this crisis a stronger and more agile organization and go on to accomplish great culinary triumphs. We will remain committed to provide and deliver our valued customers the best quality products using the highest standards available in food safety, storage and distribution.
Wishing everyone to stay safe and healthy.
