RIYADH: Saudi-based franchise retailer Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Co. will start offering microfinance solutions across its wide network of retail stores in the Kingdom, Vogacloset, and other platforms. The retailer’s revenue from online operations reached SR171 million ($45.5 million) in the nine months ending Dec. 31, the company’s chief executive officer, Marwan Moukarzel, told Argaam. Alhokair currently has 1,400 stores, 300 of which are located outside the Kingdom, and its brand portfolio comprises a total of 85 brands, according to Moukarzel. “The company opened 63 stores in the first nine months of 2021/22 and is planning another nine stores in the fourth quarter of the same fiscal year, including Flying Tiger and Alo Yoga,” he said. Following the recent franchise agreement with US food brand Subway, the executive added that the company is planning to add over 145 Subway outlets in the next six years. As the pandemic-hit economy recovered, the retailer managed to swing from losses into SR82.7 million net profit in the first nine months of its fiscal year in 2021. The company saw a 46 percent hike in revenue during the same period, which was the main driver of the improved results, it said in a bourse statement earlier.