🛋️🏠 Inheriting a business is one story. Reinventing it is another. In this After Hours vertical, we talk to the leaders, founders, and executives shaping what comes next for Egypt’s companies and industries. Speaking to us this week is Reem Abou El Makarem (LinkedIn), CEO of Image Home, and founder of Dokan Boutique and Aichas Table.

My name is Reem Abou El Makarem, and I’m the CEO of Image Home department store and founder of Dokan Boutique and Aichas Table. I’m the third-generation leader of a family business that my father, Ashraf Abou El Makarem, founded in the mid ‘80s. He built Egypt’s first textiles and home furnishings department store, Carpet City.

Within 10 years, El Makarem Group grew to more than 20 Carpet City stores across the country. These included franchises in governorates outside of Cairo, at a time when the concept of franchising was unheard of. My grandfather, who was also in the textiles industry, left his own business and joined my father. Unfortunately, as often happens with large family businesses, there were some differences among the shareholders and my father decided to part ways with Carpet City and Makarem Group.

Image Home department store was created in 2002-2003 as a more high-end retail concept. My father likes to go big, so the first Image store in Mohandeseen was a sprawling three-story shop that sold everything from carpets to bed sheets, towels, and furniture. In 2006, the year I graduated from university, we got the exclusive franchise for the Italian furniture brand Natuzzi, which was an important turning point for the business.

My father encouraged me to gain some experience outside the family business. For a second I considered going to work for an ad agency so I could put my advertising and PR degree to use — but at the last minute I decided against it. I started working at Image just as we were opening our second 4k sqm flagship branch on the corniche in Maadi.

Our product mix has been 60/40 local vs. imported — and we don’t own factories. This was initially a big debate between my father and I, because I felt that we should be manufacturing our own products. He was adamant that we are retailers and not manufacturers. Eventually I came to realize that he was right.

You can’t be a manufacturer, designer, and retailer. Focus and specialization have been key to our growth. We have our own design center so all of the designs are done in-house and the manufacturing is outsourced to factories and workshops in Egypt and outside. A carpet can be designed here and manufactured in India. We’ve been working with some of the same trusted suppliers in Egypt for years, so it feels like we’ve built this business together.

In my early years with the company, I was exposed to everything from marketing to operations and even window displays. I spent time in the stores and the warehouses, and learned the ins and outs of the business. I think what helped me the most in those days was that I was allowed to make mistakes. Eventually I started carving out my own niche.

Dokan Boutique was born 14 years ago, shortly after the birth of my son. Towards the end of my maternity leave, Pinterest was just becoming popular, so I found myself creating a board that became a concept — and six months later, I opened Dokan as a small 100 sqm shop within our Maadi Image store. The idea was to create a young, fresh, quirky local brand of furniture and accessories that was very different from the rest of our product lines. Dokan’s product mix is 80/20 local vs. imported and we work with local artists and artisans to create distinctive pieces in crazy colors with a local vintage-y feel.

Aichas Table, the second brand that I founded, was coincidentally a couple of years after the birth of my daughter Aicha in 2022. My mother is originally Palestinian and we’re a family that loves food. Tableware and table settings have always been important to us. That was the inspiration for the brand. I manufacture with Fathy Mahmoud and I work with young Egyptian illustrators on the designs. We launched a couple of years ago with Cairo Food Week where we were featured in their “Market” exhibit downtown. From there, we took Aicha’s Table to a second exhibition in Bahrain and now the brand is really growing and has gotten lots of interest from abroad. I believe Egyptian tableware in general has excellent export potential.

I’m the CEO, but I see myself more as a creative director. I’m working to streamline and institutionalize the business. I’d like to move more towards e-commerce. Brick and mortar retail stores will always be there for us, but my vision is to have two large department stores and smaller boutiques for things like bed and bath. Right now, we have four large Image Home locations in East and West Cairo, including flagship branches in Walk of Cairo and Almaza. In addition to Natuzzi, we have a second franchise, Kuka, a high-end Chinese furniture brand.

We’re working on a new brand strategy and launching a new line of affordable, non-customizable furniture that will be available online. It’s like a local version of Ikea for the younger generation which is what has been missing so far from our product mix. There is so much design talent in Egypt and so much more we can do.

The hardest thing about running a family business is sustaining what the previous generation has accomplished. There’s a tremendous sense of responsibility because you don’t want to destroy what they worked 50 years to achieve. You have to balance that with your own vision and a desire to grow differently. The best part of working in a family business is feeling that my father, who is still very involved in the business as chairman, can lean on me in good times and bad.