Hozpitality presents, Raphael Saxod, a man who revolutionized Hospitality Supplies Business in UAE

Written by :- Vandana Raj, MD, Hozpitality Group

From the first office in RAK with a limited staff only, through their showroom in JLT and the first factory outlet in Al Quoz, RESTOFAIR RAK stands 18 years later with a hundred employees and more than 15,000 m2 spread between their sites in RAK, DUBAI and JEBEL ALI.

Raphael arrived in the Emirates in 2004 with his wife, Aude, and his two children, Candice and Andrea, to set up and manage RESTOFAIR RAK. It was not easy for Raphael to start in a new country with unknown people. He had to write everything from scratch. But Raphael knew the trade so well that it took him only a little time to expand the business in the UAE. 

In 2017, the SAXOD family sold all its activities to ECF, specializing in hotel and restaurant supplies worldwide. The ECF Group reappointed Raphael to the management of RESTOFAIR RAK, which he still enjoys running as if it were his first day.  

Raphael was born in 1971 in Annecy, France, a city between the lake and the mountains with a population of about 130,000, nicknamed the Venice of the Alps and bordering Switzerland.  

In 1995, after finishing four years of studies in business school, Raphael joined his sister and two brothers in the family company ECOTEL EQUIPMENT HOTELIER, founded in 1969 by their parents.

A strong desire to travel the world and meet other cultures quickly led him to take charge of the international development of their family business. 

At first, Raphael naturally turned to French-speaking countries: the Maghreb, West Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Caribbean. He set up several outlets and representative offices in these regions, notably in Morocco, Senegal, and Guadeloupe, to name but a few.  

In the early 2000s, through one of its Swiss clients, the company started communicating with the RAK CERAMICS group, which was looking for distributors for its new tableware factory, RAK PORCELAIN.  

The ECF group (ECOTEL - CHOMETTE FAVOR) assisted RAK PORCELAIN with importing and distributing its products in Europe. At the same time, RAK PORCELAIN, the SAXOD family, and the ECF group decided to create the company RESTOFAIR RAK.  

RESTOFAIR RAK took over the distribution of RAK PORCELAIN products in the Emirates and completed the range with imported products to offer a global solution to hotel and restaurant professionals. It began a long and beautiful collaboration and a great commercial success. 

ECF (Ecotel Chomette Favor) is a 425 million Euro company with 1300 employees serving 80,000 customers across 12 countries since its inception in 1880. EHF is a leader in France's Horeca sector and supplies small equipment and consumables. Over 140 years of growth transformed ECF from a new independent Parisian grocery firm to a stable, steadily growing leader and an international multicultural group. ECF currently serves 80,000 clients across 12 countries and with 200 direct sales agents and 44 Cash & Carry networks in Europe. Reward Distribution Australia is a 350-member team, and a network of stores in major cities in Australia enabled ECF to serve a broader client base in Oceania. 

RESTOFAIR RAK has a central distribution center in Ras al Khaimah with a Dubai cash and carry outlet, workplaces in Ras al Khaimah, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi, and direct deals specialists around the UAE to serve faster. RESTOFAIR- RAK is focused on meeting explicit and fluctuating expectations, whether a hotel, restaurant, coffee shop, pastry shop, catering company, renowned organization, school, emergency clinic, or fast-food unit. The supplies include crockery, cutlery, glassware, table accessories, menu and signage, barware, buffet ware, disposables, kitchen utensils, plug-in machines, pastry, cleaning and stewarding, apartment essentials, in-room supplies, furniture, occupational clothing, hygiene products and much more.