retail founded 1924 1924 alexandria egypt founder arthur rawdon spinney area served middle east products hypermarket supercenter superstore supermarket website www.spinneys.com spinneys is a supermarket chain in the middle east which began as railway provision merchants and expanded to a grocery firm importing british empire goods to the mandate palestine . 1 the largest shareholder and manager of the brand is the dubai based private equity firm the abraaj group . contents 1 history 2 present 3 references 4 see also 4.1 external links history edit logo used in the u.a.e the supermarket was founded by arthur rawdon spinney cbe who having served in the staffordshire yeomanry 2 and later on the staff of general allenby 3 set up operations in the suburbs of alexandria egypt in 1924 which initially formed and organized the provision department of the palestine railways . 4 he took over transporting contract to mandate palestine administration from two pioneering new zealanders norman & gerald nairn who established the first cross desert bus service between damascus & baghdad following the first world war . 5 setting up his import and shipping headquarters in haifa he later sold imported english goods from the jaffa road store which were then a novelty in mandate palestine and syria through his two companies spinney s ltd. and full worth ltd. 6 which contrasted with local merchants who only sold goods sourced from the region and were unfamiliar to the british living and serving there . his commercial position and involvement with the palestine commissioner allowed him to also hold the post of a trustee for haifa early in the second world war . 7 during the second world war rawdon spinney also served as the hungarian consul general in palestine 8 having moved house to jerusalem with two stores operated at the spinney s spinney s ltd. haifa greek colony branch and mamillah road premises until 1949 . 9 initially spinneys branches were located in the major regional cities frequented by british subjects via the railway line alexandria cairo haifa acre where it operated the kabri mineral factory 10 11 and damascus . since mid 1920s haifa branch where spinney married cecil joan glegg in 1928 and was later the president of the haifa rotary club 12 also served as agents for peninsular and oriental steam navigation company traders & shippers ltd. 13 due to interruption to railway services 14 on which spinneys depended with the start of the 1936 1939 arab revolt in palestine it moved its haifa branch from mandate palestine to baghdad . mr spinney joined the uk establishment when his daughter elizabeth married john slim 2nd viscount slim in 1958 at kyrenia cyprus where he had a presence since 1949 . in the 1960s arthur spinney retired from active participation in the managing of the stores and died in august 1973 in littlehampton sussex where he was buried in the crematorium . 15 after the 14 july revolution its baghdad store was relocated in 1961 to dubai uae where it had operated since 1942 in al nasr square deira . in later years other stores were opened across the persian gulf region . 16 in 1967 the first spinneys store in beirut was open . present edit as of 2011 the spinneys group limited is a premium supermarket retailer in the middle east and operates hypermarkets and supermarkets in one store in qatar seven stores in lebanon three stores in egypt two in jordan and through franchise agreements 30 spinneys stores in the uae 21 in dubai 5 in sharjah 1 in ajman 4 in abu dhabi 1 in al ain in the united arab emirates . in 2007 the chain announced an aggressive expansion programme across the middle east north africa and south asia menasa region . 17 since 2006 spinneys group ceo is michael wright . plans to open two hypermarkets in libya one at end 2011 and one at end 2012 18 have been halted due to the 2011 libyan civil war . ambitious plans to open many stores spanning from the maghreb to kazakhstan including 12 stores in egypt by 2012 19 have been called into question due to the ongoing arab spring . references edit dubai faqs information guide spinneys george colin lawder bertram antarctica cambridge conservation and population a biologist s story g.c.l. bertram 1987 p. 28 meir shalev barbara harshav esau a novel harper collins publishers 1994 p. 19 the near and middle east who s who near and middle east who s who publ . co. 1947 p. 256 john murchison munro the nairn way desert bus to baghdad caravan books 1980 p. 88 the near and middle east who s who near and middle east who s who publ . co. 1947 p. 256 great britain and the east volume 55 1940 p297 list of accessions to repositories h.m. stationery off . 1972 p. 90 gillian grant ed . historical photographs of the middle east from the middle east centre st. antony s college oxford catalogue brill 1985 p. 33 the jewish review volume 3 jewish teachers seminary and people s university new york 1945 p. 252 high quality mineral water used to make soda water ; ruth gruber israel without tears 1950 p. 48 watson j.l.a. ed . rotary report from haifa israel jewish arab and british members still meet despite machine guns grenades and the cross fire of snipers the rotarian vol . 74 no. 3 march 1949 rotary international p. 7 orbis encyclopaedia of extra european countries a survey and directory of political industrial financial cultural and scientific organisations in the countries of africa america asia and australasia europa publications limited 1938 p. 41 deborah bernstein constructing boundaries jewish and arab workers in mandatory palestine suny press 2000 p. 168 gleggs from todstack farm stonehaven spinneys history spinneys successfully completes first phase of us 180 million fundraising programme . 2 july 2007 . retrieved 4 january 2011 . http www.dubaifaqs.com spinneys.php spinneys dubai http www.abraaj.com english mediacenter files spinneys group.pdf business close up spinneys group see also edit the abraj group external links edit spinneys website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title spinneys & oldid 729135109 categories companies established in 1924companies of the united kingdomsupermarkets of the united arab emiratesstore brandshidden categories lebanon articles missing geocoordinate dataall articles needing coordinates navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 10 july 2016 at 04 14 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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