Acquaintances in the Art & Design field at first, Amal and Deem today are founders of The Independent Food Company which currently oversees 7 brands and 23 outlets across UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Their flagship brand SALT, which opened in 2014, started the ‘food-truck’ movement in Dubai. At first the duo faced some difficulties with the local authorities as it was not legal to commercially serve food on a moving vehicle, however after convincing the authorities on how their concept is a new business model in the UAE, today they proudly run 11 SALT outlets in the GCC.

Over the years, The Independent Food Co. has opened several more successful F&B brands including Switch, Parkers, Grind, Somewhere and Public.

Amal and Deem’s determination towards their project has shown that should one wish to explore an idea never done before, Dubai is the perfect playing field to test, execute and excel.

The great thing about Dubai is everything that surrounds us is empowering. The direction that the UAE has taken to encourage entrepreneurship and creativity is incredibly strong - and its quite difficult to not be empowered by it all. The most endearing part of all this is that it is not just the leaders that supported and empowered us, but it is the people of this country that have shown us immense love and loyalty. This combination of love and support is definitely what got us through our hardest times. 

My advice is to always remember that people recognize passion. If you put passion into anything you do, it will always be reflected and it will always make it’s your way back to you. If you create something with passion, people will react with passion. It’s quite a simple formula but it does magic. Trust me.

Co-Founder Amal Al Marri.