Client story · Specialty roastery, Al Quoz
A roastery trading eleven days after the first call
Hana Okafor moved her roastery from Melbourne to Dubai with a roaster at sea and a warehouse lease waiting for a licence.
The story
Hana had roasted coffee in Melbourne for nine years when she and her husband decided to move to Dubai, where his engineering firm had offered him a post. She found a warehouse unit in Al Quoz, shipped her roaster from Australia and called us with six weeks before it landed.
The landlord wouldn’t sign without a trade licence, and the licence needed an address. Roasting is a food activity, so it also needed approval from Dubai Municipality before the first bean went in.
Layla took the file. She chose a mainland licence, because Hana’s customers are cafés and offices across Dubai, and filed the trade name, the initial approval and a conditional lease on the same day. The licence was issued eleven days after the first call, and a customs code for importing green beans followed that week.
Meanwhile Claire sequenced the family’s visas: Hana as investor first, then her husband and their two children, with medicals booked on one morning. All four were done before the roaster cleared the port.
- first call to trade licence
- 11 days
- family visas
- 4
- to the first bag sold
- 19 days
- staff visas a year later
- 2
How it went
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Day 1
First call with Layla; written plan and fixed fees the next morning.
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Days 2 to 4
Trade name reserved, initial approval and a conditional lease on the Al Quoz unit.
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Day 11
Trade licence issued; customs code and municipality food approval applied for.
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Days 12 to 19
Investor visa for Hana, then three family visas; first roast and first sale on day 19.
I never once stood in a queue. Layla handed me a folder with my licence, our visas and a bank card, and asked if I wanted coffee.
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