Business
The Business of Organics Nils El Accad has proven that being green can go beyond corporate responsibility and offer a viable, alternative business model in Dubai. By Sandra Tinari
ubai Entrepreneur Nils El Accad is attempting to change the UAE food industry by sourcing farmers directly to import organic produce because the technology isn’t up to speed yet to source locally. German born Nils El Accad is the founder of the Organic Foods and Café, the expanding supermarket chain that began as a standalone store in 2004 in Dubai. Almost ten years later he has eight stores across the Middle East and plans to double in size. “It’s my little revolution against the conventional food industry,” El Accad says of his business and strategy to operate stores in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The businessman is steadfast in his admonishment of an industry that he says puts profit before the health of consumers and the planet. “More and more food these days is produced by publicly listed companies and their number one goal is providing profit for share holders. It’s all about making money. But that fundamentally goes against nutrition. My famous saying is that it’s not about the money.” But with such ambitious growth plans, is the Organic Foods and Café chain making money? After all, being in business is about minimising costs and maximising profit. “Sure, I’m paying my bills. Can I make more money doing something else? Definitely. But, I would rather leave a positive rather than leave a bag of bones.” El Accad’s business hadn’t always been green. His father established a thriving food and drinks production and distribution firm in Dubai in the 1970s. Now operating as El Accad Trading, it is managed by Nils and his brother, Jens. After battling personal illness, and the death of his mother from cancer when he was 21 years-old, Nils was convinced that he
needed to transform the family firm’s focus to the production and distribution of organic and biodynamic food and drink. “It was my mother who had exposed me to the wrongs of the food industry when I was younger and had planted the seeds of healthier living, raw and organic food in me. She had studied in the last years of her life,” he says. “Then in the late 1990’s I fell ill and after several years of struggling, a homeopath cured what every other doctor could
The Organic Foods and Café supermarket chain will expand into KSA and Qatar.
2013 September / October GC 33