wholly owned subsidiary industry fast food founded 2007 headquarters united arab emirates parent al islami foods website official website al farooj fresh is an international chain of fast food restaurants based in the united arab emirates uae . 1 al farooj fresh was the first fast casual restaurant chain in uae that offered healthy food such as shawerma sandwiches and chicken meals . 2 clarification needed al farooj fresh is a wholly owned subsidiary of al islami foods a company that provides halal food products and has 18 branches worldwide including 14 in the uae 1 in oman and 2 in lebanon . 3 history edit al farooj fresh was founded by a lebanese family in 1994 with the first branch opening at sharjah in the united arab emirates that year . by 2006 the chain had expanded to a total of eight branches . 4 on february 25 2006 at the gulfood exhibition held at the dubai international convention & exhibition centre it was announced that al farooj was acquired by the mohammed bin rashid establishment for young business leaders citation needed an organisation launched in 2002 to encourage and facilitate the development of business and entrepreneurial activity among uae nationals . 5 the establishment worked jointly with al islami to introduce the concept to uae entrepreneurs after final approval of al islami on the franchisee selection . in february 2008 al islami acquired majority shares of the al farooj restaurant chain relaunching the franchise later that month with plans to expand operations to serve the middle eastern market . 6 coinciding with the relaunch of al farooj fresh al islami announced plans to unveil their hospitality arm of which al farooj fresh was a major part of the portfolio along with al islami cart al islami meat shops and a number of food products . 7 the company s expansion continued into 2009 with al islami revealing that they would be expanding the al farooj chain to 17 branches with an investment of dhs 8 million appx 2.2 million providing them with 17 branches worldwide consisting of 14 in the uae 1 in oman and 2 in lebanon . 3 and kuwait . references edit al farooj fresh . businessweek.com . business week . retrieved 2009 05 16 . fenton suzanne february 25 2008 . new restaurant chain promotes halal fast food . gulfnews.com . gulf news . retrieved 2009 05 16 . a b al farooj restaurant invests dhs8 million into uae expansion . albawaba.com . al bawaba . march 17 2009 . retrieved 2009 05 16 . history and expansion . alfarooj.com . al farooj . retrieved 2009 05 16 . mohammed bin rashid awards . smeawards.ae . sme awards . archived from the original on 26 april 2009 . retrieved 2009 05 16 . what s new in your industry food beverages and tobacco uae . business middle east . 16 6 7 . march 16 2008 . al islami foods set to unveil hospitality arm . khaleejtimes.com . khaleej times . february 23 2008 . retrieved 2009 05 16 . external links edit official website this food and or confectionery corporation or company related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e this asian corporation or company article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title al farooj fresh & oldid 738994565 categories fast food franchisesrestaurant chains in the united arab emiratesfood company stubsasian company stubshidden categories wikipedia articles needing clarification from may 2009all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from may 2009all stub articles 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 add links this page was last modified on 12 september 2016 at 05 19 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view