About Magrudy's
Magrudy’s Retail Shops
Magrudy’s began trading in 1975, and quickly became a central part of Dubai life. At first selling mainly educational toys and school supplies, children’s books formed part of our very first offering. By popular request, new categories were quickly added: mother and baby, cookery, fiction and so on. We had to open a second shop to fit in all the books, which were by this point the biggest part of our business.
Although Jumeirah remains the “spiritual home” of Magrudy’s – still visited by the same customers who shopped with us as children in the Seventies and Eighties, now parents themselves – the ever-increasing demand for books in Dubai allowed us to begin opening new shops.
In 2001, we opened our then flagship bookshop at Deira City Centre to critical acclaim. This became the model for future Magrudy’s shops, with other outlets opening in the Burjuman Centre in 2003 and Ibn Battuta Mall in 2005. In 2007 we opened a shop in Al Wahda Mall, Abu Dhabi, and were astounded by the response. The term “oasis in the desert” springs to mind! Our newest offering, the flagship Dubai Festival City shop, opened in March 2008, is our biggest to date and the largest bookshop in the UAE. A new branch of Magrudy’s opened in the high-profile Dubai Mall in November 2008, and in the future we are due to open shops in Al Bawadi Mall in Al Ain and the Abu Dhabi Central Market Emporium. The original Jumeirah shop, meanwhile, has recently expanded again to accommodate our school uniform department.
The most exciting recent event, however, was the opening of the Magrudy’s Call Centre. Now our customers can call one number and be quickly put through to our highly-trained team, who can locate books quickly and efficiently across the whole company – leaving our retail staff to focus on keeping their shops at their best.
Education and Wholesale Services
In 2002, we opened the Magrudy’s Educational Resource Centre, where teachers can evaluate different texts and schemes before ordering and take part in professional development courses run by visiting lecturers. In 2008 this relocated to new facilities in Jumeirah, freshly equipped to offer a better service still.
Magrudy’s has also built up an excellent distribution and wholesale arm, supplying key accounts in the UAE and further afield (Dubai Duty Free, Toys R Us, Spinney’s supermarkets, Borders, Sharjah Duty Free, Kinokinaya, Qatar Duty Free, to name but a few). This is a fast expanding and important part of our planned strategy for the future continued success of Magrudy’s.
We have developed a franchise operational model that will make it possible for Magrudy’s bookshops to open outside the UAE, beginning with Doha, Qatar with our franchisee partner, Sheikh Khalid Al Thani.
We are distributors for such leading brands as Filofax, Roger la Borde, Paperblanks, Orchard Toys, Santoro Graphics and Carte Blanche.
Magrudy’s Today
Being a family-run business with the needs of the local community always in mind, our books are complemented by a wide range of cards, toys, stationery, and arts & crafts materials suitable for all ages, as well as school uniforms and shoes sold through our Jumeirah and Ibn Battuta Branches. We also actively work to encourage reading among nationals and residents alike, running books clubs for adults and children, inviting authors for signings, and working closely with local schools to promote reading as a path to knowledge.
