The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are experiencing fast recovery, aided by the rapid roll-out of vaccination together with the pent-up demand, as a season of vigorous recovery in travel, tourism, and the hospitality sector is awaiting in the second half of 2021. The Food & Beverages (F&B) businesses in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, await a season of boost in business.

A recent study by Dubai Statistics Center estimates growth to accelerate to 4% in the Emirate by 2021. Dubai’s tourism industry will be looking to consolidate its gradual return to form ahead of the Expo event and the UAE’s 50th-anniversary celebrations later this year. Further, Qatar’s preparations leading up to hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022, the first in the Arab World and the Middle East, are increasingly opening business opportunities across sectors, including hospitality & restaurant business.

GCC has established itself as a gastronomic hub with some of the best restaurant concepts in the world and well-known international chefs. The industry has recalibrated itself post-COVID-19, restaurateurs are emerging stronger with sustainable & innovative business models. The industry is at a point where contactless dining, guest experience, multichannel delivery and take-out services have become necessary to serve the customers’ changing behaviours.

Restaurants are now turning to technology more than ever to spring back to growth; interestingly POSist Restaurant Industry & Market Evolution (PRIME) Report, released earlier this year, highlighted that seven out of ten restaurants in the UAE are willing to invest up to 8% of their revenues in technology to improve their customer experience, bring more efficiency to their operations, and boost their profitability.

Building upon this momentum of the growing economy, POSist has expanded its reach in the Gulf. Serving over 9,000 restaurants in 35 countries, GCC is the second-largest market for POSist outside of India. In the last year, despite the pandemic, POSist has doubled its customer base in the Gulf, serving over 100 brands in the region. Early this year, POSist announced the appointment of Ajay Singh, ex-CEO of Pizza Hut & Costa Coffee India, as the Chief Growth Officer to drive expansion across the Sub-Continental India, Middle East, Americas, and the UK.

POSist recently introduced its app marketplace for the restaurant industry. The POSist marketplace allows restaurants to quickly discover and install trusted third party applications to make the front and back of house operations more efficient. The marketplace currently has over 150+ technology partners offering, Online-ordering platforms, Digital wallets, Cloud telephony software, Table reservation platforms, Loyalty programs, and Delivery integration with top online food aggregators globally.

POSist has partnered with leading delivery and logistics services companies, including Deliverect, a fast-growing SaaS scale-up that connects third-party delivery platforms and food businesses around the globe; Lyve, a leading last-mile and on-demand delivery technology provider; and RadYes, an extremely customizable, modular, and complete plug-and-play digital ordering ecosystem for brands across geographies and industries.

Further POSist works with IT consulting firm Zen Interactive Technologies to offer messaging solutions, LS Infotech, a Microsoft Dynamics professionals and support consultancy and Glee Hospitality, a bespoke restaurant consulting firm to offer 360 holistic approaches to the management & consultancy of F&B outlets from concept development, market research to franchising.

“It has been a significant year for us in the gulf market; we added strategic partners, customers, and onboarded top-notch leadership to expand in the region,” said Ashish Tulsian, co-founder and CEO, POSist. “We have doubled our reach in the region since 2020. Our platform continues to deliver valuable results for our F&B customers as we add new features to our cloud-based software. We have a strong product roadmap for 2021. The best of what we are building is yet to come.”