(Filed Under wholesale Maternity News). Mothers Work has announced its first-ever international franchise agreement, which will bring the Philadelphia-based maternity retailer into the Middle East next year.

The agreement with Multi Trend, based in Kuwait, will introduce Destination Maternity, Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod and Edamame The Maternity Spa to six key markets in the region: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Multi Trend's parent company, Al-Homaizi Group, has brought several large businesses to the region, including Burger King, Applebee's, Ikea and Joe Blogg's menswear.

"Our new relationship with Multi Trend provides us with a great opportunity to introduce our Destination Maternity, Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod, and Edamame brands to a population of approximately 30 million who reside in these six key markets in the Middle East," said Ed Krell, Mothers Work's newly appointed chief executive officer. "The Middle East represents a natural market for us to introduce our brands, since it has some of the highest birth rates, a strong growing economy and a population of new moms-to-be who love to shop and have an ever increasing need for high-quality, fashionable maternity apparel and services."

"We are very pleased to introduce the industry-leading Mothers Work maternity brands into these key Middle East markets, which we see as a continuation of the rich tradition of the Al-Homaizi Group in bringing unique products to discerning, fashion-conscious and quality-conscious consumers," said Saleh Yacoub Al-Homaizi, chairman of Multi Trend.

Mothers Work operates 754 stores in the U.S. and Canada under its four trade names. It also distributes its Oh Baby by Motherhood collection through a licensed arrangement at Kohl's stores throughout the United States and on Kohls.com.

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Published 10-15-2008 by Raquel Christie