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Company History
Company History


Hotbrands International originally began operations as a small proprietorship in May 1992 with Fillings, serving specialty salads and sandwiches in the food court of BurJuman Shopping Centre in Dubai, UAE.

The shopping centre industry in the UAE was at a very nascent stage at that time. The initial struggle was testing but the rapidly growing shopping centre culture in the UAE and tighter controls on overall operations resulted in steady success. The realization of the growing potential of this industry lead the owners to open two more concepts in the same food court: Shamiana® serving Tandoori and Indian Cuisine in 1993 and Sala Thai® serving authentic Thai food in 1994.

By the end of 1995, while the owners consolidated all three existing concepts, the launch of the biggest shopping centre in the Middle East, Deira City Centre, provided the opportunity to replicate the most popular concepts, Shamiana and Fillings. In 1996 the company achieved impressive annual sales of over $1 million (USD).

The growth has been exponential. In October 2001, we opened our first venture outside the UAE at Muscat City Centre in the neighbouring country of Sultanate of Oman where, in addition to Shamiana, we added the new concepts Magic Wok®, serving Chinese cuisine, and Santino’s®, serving Italian pizzas and pastas, in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

 

Since then there have been several milestones over a relatively short period of time. Currently HBI operates  over 60 restaurants in malls throughout the Middle East and India. May 2005 saw the opening of Sugoi!™ Japanese Cuisine (QSR format) in Ibn Battuta Mall Dubai, along with the Shamiana and then Santino's. With the opening of the Mall of the Emirates in September 2005 HBI opened Magic Wok (Chinese QSR) and Shamiana QSR restaurants, further expanding these brands.   

HBI's  first casual dining restaurant, Pane Caldo formally Santino's Bistro Italiano™, opened at Jawharat A'Shati complex in Muscat, Oman in June 2005 followed by Haru (Japanese Cuisine) opening at the Green Community West  and then at  Jumeirah Beach Residence in Dubai during the summer of 2008. Other brands developed are Da Shi Dai opening at Jumeirah Beach Residence in mid 2008 and completing another milestone as HBI's first Chinese casual dining restaurant.

The newly-created company has been structured to facilitate the development of our operations internationally. This will include the opening of the International Training and Development Centre and test kitchens, as well as new recruiting offices and support centres for expansion into India and North America.


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