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Excellence combined: A powerhouse week of hospitality and foodservice events as HORECA and Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie Riyadh return

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The brightly lit interior of a professional kitchen, featuring chefs gathered around a cooking station during a culinary competition.

With the strategic partnership of the Culinary Arts Commission (CAC), HORECA Riyadh and Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie Riyadh will be held from 15–17 December 2025 at Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Center. Together with Saudi Elite Chefs and Host Arabia, they will create the biggest hospitality and foodservice week in the kingdom’s capital, with four events attracting 50,000 professionals and gathering 500 exhibitors across 42,000 sqm.

Organized by Semark Group, Jad Taktak, CEO of the company, said: “This edition marks the greatest alliance of hospitality exhibitions in Saudi Arabia. We are thrilled to join over 100 years of combined experience, bringing together the region’s leading brands, experts and innovators under one roof. The expectations are very high, and we are confident that this collaboration will elevate industry standards, create exceptional business opportunities and contribute to Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing hospitality landscape.”

Transforming Riyadh into the kingdom’s premier stage for foodservice and hospitality excellence, HORECA Riyadh’s 14th edition will showcase cutting-edge products, advanced technologies and world-class culinary talent across all areas of hospitality, from hotel and restaurant management to catering, design and F&B innovation, creating unparalleled opportunities for business growth and networking.

At the heart of the show lies a rich calendar of competitions and activities that honor excellence, creativity, talent and knowledge, with 40 international and local judges, experts and speakers. More than 100 participants will take part in contests, including the Hospitality Salon Culinaire, HORECA Barista Competition Riyadh and the Mocktail Competition, while HORECA Talks, a platform for thought leadership and exchange, will host expert-led sessions on emerging trends in hospitality and F&B, investment and the what’s next for the sectors in Saudi Arabia. These talks are organized by Hospitality News Middle East and Hodema Consulting Services.

HORECA Riyadh 2025 welcomes back Guillaume Gomez, president of Groupe Gastronomie and former French ambassador for gastronomy, as guest of honor.

Running alongside HORECA Riyadh is the third edition of Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie Riyadh, an extension of the iconic French Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie, renowned globally as a premier event dedicated to chocolate and pastry excellence. Co-organized by Semark Group and Hospitality Services, this year’s show promises an immersive journey into the world of cocoa and confectionery, with over 40 live demonstrations, workshops and competitions. A dedicated Pastry Show will gather acclaimed chefs and artisans from around the region and beyond, while competitions across multiple categories will spotlight the talents of more than 50 participants.

Among the 30 pastry chefs and experts, Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie Riyadh proudly announces renowned Belgian chocolatier Pierre Marcolini as guest of honor. Marcolini will host a special chocolate masterclass and join a discussion on chocolate innovation and trends at The Talks.

“As part of the HORECA Network, with annual events in cities across the Middle East – Kuwait, Beirut, Amman, Muscat and Riyadh – HORECA Riyadh is a pivotal platform that brings together the region’s leading hospitality and foodservice professionals, innovators and investors. In parallel, Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie Riyadh celebrates the artistry and creativity of chocolate and pastry while inspiring innovation and showcasing trends in the Saudi market,” said Joumana Dammous-Salamé, managing director of Hospitality Services, the company behind the HORECA Network and co-organizer of Salon du Chocolat et de la Pâtisserie Riyadh.

Held concurrently, the second edition of Saudi Elite Chefs, organized by the Culinary Arts Commission (CAC), will gathers the kingdom’s top culinary talents for the second consecutive year. This prestigious event will highlight the diversity of Saudi cuisine, celebrate world-class culinary craftsmanship and provide a dynamic platform for chefs to demonstrate their expertise through challenging, high-level competitions that aim to elevate the national culinary scene, inspire future generations of Saudi chefs and strengthen Saudi Arabia’s growing reputation as a global gastronomic destination.

Making its debut, Host Arabia – the international extension of Milan’s world-leading hospitality exhibition, HostMilano – brings the global hospitality ecosystem to Riyadh, connecting regional decision-makers with international suppliers and innovators.

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Hospitality

Endless Creators Launches in the UAE to Streamline Talent and Production Workflows

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A new platform is entering the UAE’s growing creator economy with a clear focus on structure, reliability, and end-to-end execution. Founded by Rosie Gunn and Chris Primett, Endless Creators positions itself as a full-service talent, creator, and production platform designed to simplify how brands and creative professionals collaborate.

Bridging Gaps in a Fragmented Industry

The platform is built on firsthand industry experience. Having worked across campaigns as on-set talent, the founders identified persistent challenges within the region’s creative ecosystem, including inconsistent standards, fragmented workflows, and delays in payment and coordination.

Endless Creators is designed to address these inefficiencies by creating a more structured and transparent environment for both brands and talent. The focus is on bringing consistency to an industry that often operates across multiple disconnected layers.

A Curated Talent Ecosystem

Unlike open marketplaces, Endless Creators operates as a curated network. Talent is vetted and selected to ensure reliability and quality across projects. The platform brings together a wide range of creative professionals, including content creators, models, actors, videographers, stylists, and production specialists.

This approach enables brands to access a more controlled and dependable talent pool, while also offering creators a more organised and supportive working environment.

Beyond Talent: Full-Service Production

The platform extends beyond talent sourcing into full-scale production support. Services include creative direction, concept development, location management, and production execution. By integrating these functions, Endless Creators aims to reduce the complexity typically associated with managing creative projects across multiple vendors.

Operational tools are also built into the platform to improve efficiency, including structured call sheets, influencer licensing support, and systems designed to streamline communication between stakeholders.

Raising Standards Across the Ecosystem

A key focus for the platform is improving the overall experience for talent. This includes more transparent processes, reliable payment structures, and better on-set organisation. By addressing these foundational issues, Endless Creators is positioning itself as part of a broader shift towards professionalising the region’s creator economy.

Positioning the UAE as a Creative Hub

With roots in both the UAE and the UK, the founders are bringing a global perspective to a rapidly evolving local market. The platform is not only aimed at improving collaboration within the region but also at supporting the UAE’s positioning as a hub for high-quality production and creative output.

Editorial Perspective

The launch of Endless Creators reflects a wider transition in the creator economy, where scale alone is no longer enough. As brands demand higher quality, faster execution, and more accountability, platforms that combine talent access with operational structure are becoming increasingly relevant.

In this context, Endless Creators is not just another talent marketplace. It represents a move towards integrated, production-led ecosystems that align creative output with business outcomes—an approach that is likely to shape the next phase of growth in the region’s content and media landscape.

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Hospitality

WHY CREDIBLE SUSTAINABILITY STILL WINS IN AN INFLATIONARY MARKET

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Ryan Black, Co-founder & CEO of SAMBAZON – the organic, fair trade and sustainable açaí brand – shares that the future of sustainability belongs to brands that can show measurable metrics, independent audits and full supply chain transparency.

Consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products, even when inflation continues to shape purchasing decisions. For hospitality businesses, this is an important signal. It underlines that sustainability still carries commercial value, particularly in premium cafés, hotels, restaurants and foodservice settings where quality, provenance and brand trust all influence buying behaviour.

At the same time, consumers are becoming quicker to question the claims behind the products they buy. They may still value sustainability, but they are far less willing to accept broad environmental language without evidence. For hospitality operators, that creates a clear challenge. Sustainability can still support premium pricing, but only when it is credible, specific and properly substantiated.

At SAMBAZON, we continue to see strong demand for certified organic and ethically sourced products, despite inflationary pressure. That is especially true across natural retail, specialty grocery, foodservice and premium café channels.

Middle East consumers now actively seek transparency, clean labels and brands with verified impact. Our retail partners report that shoppers are willing to pay more for products that deliver on both quality and purpose, especially when certifications are clearly displayed and backed by third-party verification.

Sustainability = Quality

In hospitality, this premium positioning is often even more visible. Consumers increasingly associate certified organic and fair trade ingredients with superior quality, and that can strengthen menu pricing power. In other words, sustainability does not sit outside the guest experience. It’s part of how quality is perceived.

But hospitality businesses cannot rely on good intentions or attractive messaging.

Today’s consumer expects evidence, not claims.

 The proof points that matter most are those that can be verified and explained clearly. That includes recognized certification standards such as Fair for Life and USDA Certified Organic, as well as traceability from harvest to finished product, third-party audits, transparent impact reporting and measurable environmental protection. Consumers also want to understand the wider effect of their purchase; they want to know how their buying decision supports farmers, protects ecosystems and reinvests in communities.

That shift matters, because many of the old shortcuts in sustainability communication no longer work. Terms such as sustainable, ethical, green and eco-friendly can quickly become meaningless if they are too broad or impossible to prove. In our view, those words should only be used when they can be defined clearly and supported by evidence. Internally, every sustainability claim we make has to meet three tests: it must be backed by third-party verification, terms used must be clearly defined, and we must be able to provide supporting data if asked. Whenever possible, we replace adjectives with numbers.

That discipline is important because misconceptions still persist. Some consumers assume that sustainability simply means a higher price without added value. Others confuse natural with certified ethical sourcing. Many still believe sustainability claims are mostly marketing.

In reality, verified sustainability requires audited standards, compliance costs and structural investment across the supply chain. The price reflects those commitments, but it also reflects quality, transparency and long-term environmental stewardship.

For SAMBAZON, ethical sourcing is not a campaign line. It is built into the structure of the business. One hundred per cent of our açaí is certified organic, and our entire supply chain is Fair for Life certified. We work directly with 827 individual açaí harvesters across 256 communities in the Amazon region.

Since our founding, we have invested more than $1 million in harvester communities through verified fair trade premiums, helping to fund schools, health centers and community improvements. In 2024 alone, our Fair Trade-certified harvest area encompassed 100,204 acres of Amazon rainforest, an area more than four times the size of Paris. According to an independent 60 Decibels survey, 100 per cent of harvesters believe SAMBAZON contributes to the development of their community.

Those figures matter in hospitality because they move the conversation away from abstract values and into operational fact. They also help buyers explain why a product costs what it does.

Inflation has increased costs across logistics, packaging and global freight, but we have not reduced our certification standards or sourcing commitments to offset those pressures. We justify price through certified organic quality, verified fair trade sourcing, functional benefits and transparent, documented impact. Retailers and hospitality buyers understand that cutting corners on sourcing may reduce short-term cost, but it can also compromise brand equity and long-term consumer trust.

This is where the industry still gets it wrong. Too many sustainability claims rely on broad, unverified language with little measurable backing. Greenwashing often happens when brands use undefined terms without certification, highlight one positive initiative while ignoring wider supply chain impacts, or avoid third-party verification altogether. That may once have been enough to support a story, but it’s no longer enough to sustain trust.

For hospitality businesses, the lesson is straightforward. Consumers value sustainable products and will often pay more for them, even in a pressured economy. But the premium depends less on promise than on proof.

The future of sustainability communication will belong to brands that can show measurable metrics, independent audits and full supply chain transparency. In hospitality, where trust and perceived quality matter so much, documented proof is no longer a nice addition. It is the standard consumers increasingly expect.

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Hospitality

HYDRATION WITH PURPOSE: OURWATR AND KEETA UAE COLLABORATE TO TURN EVERYDAY WATER INTO COMMUNITY IMPACT

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Ourwatr is set to revolutionize community hydration with its free mineral water programme. Today, Ourwatr proudly announces a purpose-led collaboration with Keeta, the international on-demand food delivery platform. This strategic partnership is designed to expand community access to locally produced premium mineral water while simultaneously reinforcing a shared, profound commitment to social impact across the UAE.

Designed to serve the communities it reaches, Ourwatr is a homegrown UAE startup built on the belief that every bottle of water should deliver value beyond refreshment. Through its purpose-led model, a portion of each bottle distributed is channelled toward community programmes in partnership with Beit Al Khair Society. Sourced from the natural underground springs of Dibba and bottled locally under the Emirates Quality Mark (EQM), Ourwatr reflects the strength and credibility of the UAE’s SME ecosystem, transforming everyday hydration into sustained community support.

Through this collaboration, Keeta reinforces its commitment to supporting UAE-based SMEs initiatives that advance sustainability and community development. Keeta’s involvement provides crucial resources that enable Ourwatr to significantly expand its reach and accessibility. By aligning with a locally rooted platform like Ourwatr, Keeta contributes to scaling this impactful initiative responsibly, ensuring it maintains its community-first focus while reaching a broader audience. This collaboration reflects how platforms operating in the UAE can align their growth with broader social and environmental priorities, while actively supporting local businesses. Keeta’s support is instrumental in allowing Ourwatr to distribute its free mineral water more widely and enhance its community programs.

Commenting on the initiative, Lucas Xie, General Manager, Keeta UAE, said: “At Keeta, we see our mission as more than a platform; we are part of the communities we operate in. Partnering with Ourwatr allows us to support a homegrown initiative that embeds contribution into its everyday operations. By providing essential support, we are helping to expand Ourwatr’s access and reach, thereby playing a responsible role in strengthening the UAE’s SME ecosystem and fostering community-focused initiatives practically and sustainably.”

Abhinav Murali, Co-Founder of Ourwatr, said: “Ourwatr was founded on a simple conviction: giving back is not an initiative for us; it is built into every bottle we distribute. Our collaboration with Keeta enables us to scale this impact responsibly, reaching more people while ensuring that community contribution remains at the heart of our model. Growth means very little to us unless it strengthens the communities we operate in and leaves a positive mark beyond the product itself.”

With distribution planned across key neighborhoods in Dubai and the potential for broader expansion, the initiative is designed to scale thoughtfully while remaining firmly anchored in its founding principle: serving the UAE community through hydration with purpose. This initiative has been approved by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department (IACAD) under permit number PRHCE- 004959682

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