A subsidiary of Al Hokair, one of the top ten real estate, retail and retail shopping mall developers in Saudi Arabia, Food and Entertainment Co., Ltd., recently revealed that it had signed a major franchise deal with Romacorp to establish a chain of Tony Roma’s Italian restaurants throughout the Kingdom.
A minimum of six new Tony Roma's restaurants will be established under the deal, the first being in Riyadh early next year, according to Khaleej Times. The potential to establish new Tony Roma's Express units throughout the region is also being considered. Additional sites have been identified in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar throughout Saudi Arabia with the second unit scheduled to open later in 2007.
The new franchise group also operates more than 100 Cinnabon units, The Pizza Company, Carvel and Seattle's Best Coffee.
"We are extremely pleased to sign such a high quality franchise partner as Food and Entertainment to develop new Tony Roma's in Saudi Arabia," said COO of Romacorp, Marc Buehler.
"Our initial success in the Middle East with master developer, ITF, has been outstanding and we anticipate that F&E's new Tony Roma's will definitely strengthen our market share in the region. The group's successful operation of other food concepts will give them a strong advantage in their Tony Roma's development in Saudi Arabia," Buehler added.
"Tony Roma's is one of the leading casual theme concepts throughout the world, and the addition of Saudi Arabia marks our presence in 32 countries with total development commitments in over 43 countries worldwide," said Ken Myres, Vice- President of Franchise Development. "We had extremely high franchise interest in Saudi Arabia and are confident that Food and Entertainment will be an outstanding franchise partner.”
