Panda Retail Company is a Saudi Arabian grocery retailing company. Panda is one of The Savola Group's subsidiaries. The Savola Group is ranked ninth amongst the top 100 companies in the Saudi Arabian market and ranked second amongst the industrial sector after SABIC. The Savola Group has recently listed its Oils and Fats division in the Saudi Stock market under the name Afia International.
History
United Panda Co. was founded in Riyadh in 1981 with a capital of SR 207.50 million. Initially the company dealt in selling and importing foodstuff, garments, luxury items, and electric appliances. In September 1993 Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bought 50.1% of the company, at a time it was making loss, and had sixteen supermarkets in Riyadh and two at Jeddah, after the acquisition, Al-Waleed merged his retail company Al-Azizia Markets Co. with United Panda Co. to form Al-Azizia Panda United, in which he became the chairman. In 1998, the company merged with Saudi Vegetable Oil Co. (now Savola Group) under the name United Azizia Safola Co., in the next year became United Azizia Savola Co.[4][5][6]