Five minutes with… Mustafa Khawaja, owner and CEO of Khawaja Holdings

Can you tell us about Khawaja Holdings and your products?

Khawaja Holdings is an investment company based in New York, US. We’ve invested in over 40 companies throughout the last 10 years ranging from tech, marketing and nutraceuticals to real estate. Our brand ‘Sparta Nutrition’ is now available in around 65 countries worldwide.

You have announced plans to enter the UAE. Do you also intend to enter the other GCC markets?

We are aggressively entering the entire GCC market. We have signed partnerships with some of the largest distributors in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman and looking for the right partners in the other regional countries.

There is already a massive presence of regional and international nutrition/fitness companies in the UAE. How will you deal with the competition?

There’s always a need for more supplement brands. What makes us stand apart is that we produce edgy flavours and fully transparent formulas. Many brands produce proprietary blends where customers don’t even really know what’s in the product.

What are the biggest challenges you see in the UAE/wider Middle East region?

We don’t really see any challenges ahead, for us it’s just picking the perfect partner who believes in the brand, our vision and what we stand for.

Lastly, what are your plans for the future? Any other new products in the pipeline?

We constantly have new products in the works and are working on a new sleep supplement at the moment. We are also working on new series under the Sparta Nutrition umbrella that will cater to a different crowd.