Lifco International

Lifco International is a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) distribution company headquartered at Dubai Industrial Park, Saih Shuaib 2, in Dubai, and one of the six business units of the LIFCO Group; the group site describes it as working in the import, storage, distribution and marketing of dry, chilled and frozen products. The site recounts that LIFCO grew out of the vision of Mohamed Salim Hassan in Venezuela in the early 1950s, that its parent firm, Lebanese Fruit Company, was established in Lebanon in 1952, and that LIFCO was set up in the United Arab Emirates in 1975; the group now operates in the UAE, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and China. It says LIFCO is one of the top five distributors of dry, chilled and frozen food and international brands in the UAE. The company says that, as one of the largest consumer food distributors in the UAE since 1975, it offers a modern distribution infrastructure for importing, storing, distributing and marketing dry, chilled and frozen consumer products, and that it holds exclusive UAE distribution rights for a dozen international brands, while the group site puts its portfolio at more than 33 international brands. Brands shown on its partners page include Rafael Salgado, Cordoba, Bostoliva, Safi, Maatouk, Kassatly Chtaura, Al Shifa and Sary among dry products; Frico, Paysan Breton, Parmareggio, Pittas, Hajdú and Picon among chilled products; and Sunbulah, Eurial and Ashoka among frozen products, without stating their countries of origin. The company says it serves every store category in the UAE every day, from hypermarkets, supermarkets and grocery stores to restaurants and food-service outlets, and that its ERP system links the whole import, sales, distribution and marketing network and enables delivery of orders within 24 hours from a centrally located warehouse network in Dubai Industrial City. It employs more than 1,000 staff from 18 countries, runs an online HORECA ordering portal for existing customers, and states that LIFCO covers several markets in the GCC and the Levant. The company states that its entire logistics network is HACCP-certified (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) and complies with local health regulations. It also runs an ISO 22000-approved cheese packaging facility in Sharjah that packs for multinational brands including Bega (Australia), FrieslandCampina (Holland), DMK (Germany) and Carrefour's private label for the GCC; it says it is one of the very few industrial-scale producers of Italian mozzarella in the region, and the site shows Maria's shredded and block mozzarella. It names trust and transparency as its two most important values with partners.