Chris Abboud, general manager of Beyti — an Almarai Subsidiary: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is the general manager of Almarai’s Beyti Chris Abboud (LinkedIn). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Chris Abboud, and I’m the general manager of Beyti, an Almarai subsidiary, and one of Egypt’s leading dairy and juice companies. I lead a team of 6k passionate employees who work to deliver high-quality products to consumers in Egypt and abroad, as we export to nearly 45 countries. We operate two major factories in Al Nubaria and produce more than 100 products. We sell 2 bn units a year — about 6 mn a day — reaching over 86 mn consumers across 110k points of sale through 33 distribution centers. Our average market share is around 30%.

I’m passionate about building organizations that create shared value across the entire value chain, while championing homegrown talent and advancing excellence in Egypt’s food and beverage sector.

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As a general manager, I oversee the full operation at Beyti. We call our approach “from grass to glass,” which means I’m responsible for everything across the value chain — from sourcing and production to distribution and sales. My key responsibilities include setting a clear, focused, and winning strategy that aligns with our core purpose of “nourishing Egypt’s families with every sip and spoon.” I’m also responsible for ensuring we deliver on our brand promise — “quality you can trust” — for both Egyptian families and our global consumers.

In my day-to-day, I focus on driving long-term sustainable growth. While that’s a shared responsibility across our leadership team, I see my role as empowering the organization — removing roadblocks, aligning on success, and helping people unlock their full potential. Equally important is ensuring we live our six core values — family, courage, respect, ownership, collaboration, and innovation. These values aren’t just theoretical, they guide how we operate, make decisions, and treat one another.

We’ve come a long way since our founding in 1998. Over the past 26 years, we’ve become one of Egypt’s leading food and beverage companies, trusted by mns of Egyptian families thanks to consistent quality and care. As part of Almarai, we benefit from world-class food safety practices and global innovations, which we localize to meet the needs and expectations of our Egyptian consumers. Our mission is to contribute to Egypt’s food security by producing high-quality dairy and juice products, supporting sustainable agriculture, and investing in people and communities throughout our value chain. That includes empowering local farmers, ensuring safe and nutritious food reaches every table, and building resilient local supply chains.

For example, our Beyti Academy has trained 167 farms across 27 programs, delivered over 1k hours of training, and made 1k+ field visits. Through our El Kasseeb initiative, we’ve trained more than 420 young people to distribute Beyti products in 21 governorates, with plans to double that figure in the next three years. Our Future Leaders program helps us groom talent across manufacturing, sales, and corporate roles.

There are several key trends shaping our industry right now. One is the growing consumer appetite for natural ingredients, clean labels, functional health claims, and most importantly, brands with purpose. Sustainability is also becoming non-negotiable. Consumers now expect brands to demonstrate clear and meaningful commitments to environmental and social responsibility. Our sustainability strategy is built around the “Three Ps” — people, planet, and products. Every day, we take small steps to improve across these areas.

An example of this is that, Beyti operates one of the largest solar power stations connected to the grid in Egypt’s food and beverage sector, generating 7.6 MW and covering 20-30% of our factory’s energy needs. We also contributed EGP 40 mn to establish Beheira’s first industrial gas pressure reduction station, which enabled seven factories to switch to cleaner natural gas, cutting their emissions by 30%. As for water efficiency, we operate the largest wastewater treatment plant in Egypt’s dairy and juice sector, with a capacity of 3.2k cbm per day. For our packaging, we’ve avoided producing 290 tons of plastic waste annually since 2022 and recycled over 20k tons of secondary packaging each year. We also localized 67% of our raw and packaging materials to support the local economy. We don’t want to just follow trends, but help shape what responsible consumption looks like in Egypt and beyond it.

Efficiency and local sourcing are key when it comes to inflation and supply chain pressures. We’ve prioritized using local materials and we’ve invested heavily in planning, digital systems, and process innovation. Resilience isn’t built overnight — it’s about long-term thinking. Our bigger mission is to support Egypt’s food security — through high-quality production, sustainable agriculture, and empowering people across the value chain.

I wake up at 6am and head to the gym at around 6:20am. That’s when I usually read EnterpriseAM — as soon as it lands in my inbox — to catch up with the latest news. I spend around an hour-and-a-half at the gym to energize before heading to work. Once I’m in the office, most of my time is spent in team check-ins, strategic reviews, and problem-solving meetings.

Every other week, I visit one of the company’s 33 distribution depots to stay in touch with on-the-ground teams. I also have to visit our factories at least monthly to engage directly with our operations teams. Market visits are non-negotiable for me — they’re how I stay connected to what our consumers are seeing and feeling.

The one constant in my routine is the early gym session and the EnterpriseAM read — it’s how I clear my head and get ready to lead. From there, it’s about staying connected with my teams and making space for open communication and problem-solving.

When it comes to staying focused and organized, I try to delegate. I trust my team. I focus on setting the vision and enabling others to execute. I set priorities, hold structured check-ins, and rely on a rhythm of site visits and reviews. But I’m also flexible — I listen, adapt, and shift based on what the moment demands.

We’re entering a new expansion phase at Beyti. We already hold a 30% market share, but we’re aiming to scale further. We’re expanding across new categories and segments, with a projected 20-25% growth rate over the coming years. We’ve lined up over EGP 7 bn in investments, and I see this as an opportunity to cement our role as a benchmark for sustainability, innovation, and people-first leadership in Egypt’s F&B space.

I think of work-life balance as a long-term discipline. The line between work and personal life can blur in leadership roles, but I’ve learned that real balance comes from setting the right priorities. At Beyti, we implemented this idea, where we introduced paternity leave, opened an on-site nursery, and created a culture where mental health and flexibility are seen as enablers of productivity, not trade-offs.

When I need to unplug, I spend time with my wife and two kids — my son’s almost 20 and my daughter is 18. We love traveling together, or just hanging out. When I’m on my own, I’ll go for a walk or run, or read something non-work-related to reset.

There are several books I have read that have stuck with me and overall changed my perception. Among these books, which I highly recommend, are Mindset by Carol Dweck, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth, and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Some podcasts I would recommend include Leadership Next — a look at how modern CEOs are redefining business leadership — and Meet the Leader — conversations with global changemakers from the World Economic Forum.

The best advice I’ve ever received is “magic happens outside your comfort zone.” That stuck with me early in my career and I still live by it. Also, I learned that as a leader, I don’t need all the answers, but I do need to ask the right questions.

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