admin One of Saudi Arabia’s most popular fast food brands, Albaik, has opened two new installments in Bahrain. The initial announcement for the project was made by the company in November, 2018 via Twitter. The statement released enunciated, “In line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which encouraged local businesses to expand internationally, Albaik was able to sign a lease for the first branch of the restaurant in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” One of these new installments are located in the Sultan Mall and the other is situated at the Bahrain International Airport. The former branch is already open for business as it is set to serve customers the delights of fried chicken. However, the International Airport branch will be open for business soon. The company took to Twitter in order to announce a slight delay in its opening.
Expansion of a Historical Brand
The Albaik brand is a formidable name in the Middle East. It was established in 1974 as a reply to the American stalwart brand that popularized fried chicken globally- Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). For the majority of its existence trajectory it operated on the West Coast of Saudi Arabia with locations in Jeddah, Makkah, and Al-Madinah. Much like KFC, Albaik also has a secret blend of herbs and spices that offers the fried chicken its distinctive taste and flavour.
Trends Leading to this Expansion
Travellers visiting those locations have also been known to stack up on the fried chicken in tin foil packets along with the most renowned offerings of the company- spicy chicken nuggets and crispy fried shrimp. Similarly, passengers boarding flights would also carry these dishes in their carry-on luggage bags and in plastic containers.
This exclusivity of the brand to the West Coast created a chain of opportunist hawkers in the capital who would offer their services to make ‘chicken runs’. They would run to cities with an Albaik branch and stock-up on produce and then drive back to Riyadh with boxes of chicken to sell to the commoners at exorbitantly high prices. However, with the expansion of the company’s locations, both these trends have died down. Riyadh and Alkhari witnessed branch openings in 2018, while Albaik opened a pop-up in Jubail in March 2019, followed by a branch in Dammam in August 2019.
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