Employment and visas for your GCC retail teams, fully managed.
Auxilium sponsors work visas and employs your retail and F&B professionals across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC, as your Employer of Record. We handle residency visas, compliant contracts, WPS payroll and HR for the management and specialist layer that launches and runs brands in the region. Whether you're an international brand entering the mall market, a franchise group scaling concepts or a direct operation building country leadership, we carry the employment so you can focus on the customer.
Mall handover dates and franchise commitments don't wait for entity setup.
The GCC is one of the world's most attractive retail expansion markets, high-spend consumers, landmark malls, a booming F&B scene and Saudi Arabia's retail build-out under Vision 2030. International brands enter through franchises, JVs or direct operations, and every route needs a professional layer in-market: country managers, retail-operations leads, brand and concept managers.
That's what an Employer of Record provides. Auxilium becomes the legal employer of your management and specialist staff and manages visas, WPS payroll and HR. Established operators use us for launch surges and specialist roles; brands entering the market use us to put leadership on the ground while the franchise, JV or entity structure completes.
We run the employment for you
You have stores and entities in-region, but launch surges and specialist hires stretch the HR function.
- Employ launch & specialist staff under Auxilium
- Visas, Emirates ID, renewals handled
- WPS payroll, retail allowances, gratuity
- Launch teams off your operating payrolls
Land the brand before the entity
The lease is signed or the franchise agreed, and brand leadership is needed before your local structure completes.
- Hire under Auxilium's established entities
- No formation or licensing delays
- Compliant contracts fitted to retail roles
- Transfer staff to your structure when it's live
Store openings are dated
Mall handovers and opening commitments are contractual. Compliant offers in 5–10 working days keep the launch calendar intact.
Your standards, properly employed
Brand and concept managers employed compliantly with confidentiality and standards obligations that enforce locally, critical in franchise markets.
The management & specialist layer
We employ the salaried layer, country managers, ops leads, brand specialists, the roles that carry your concept into the region.
We don't recruit your team, you choose who to hire. What we do is employ and sponsor them compliantly once you have. These are the roles we most often handle the GCC employment and work-visa sponsorship for in retail and F&B:
Retail management staff are typically employed onshore mainland, via MOHRE or MHRSD, matching how retail trading entities are licensed. In franchise markets, the brand's own people often sit alongside the franchisee's workforce; employing your brand layer through an EOR keeps that separation clean and your standards enforceable.
For country leadership on multi-year build-outs, the UAE Golden Visa stabilises the people carrying the brand.
The mistake we correct most often: brand and concept managers working extended periods in-market on visit visas while the franchise or JV completes, or resident specialists paid offshore. Continuing work in-country needs local authorization, and informality puts both compliance and brand-standards enforcement at risk.
Scope note: we employ the salaried management and specialist layer, not bulk store staff, where we advise on the right local structures alongside the franchisee or operator.
Saudi retail build-out and the UAE's concept boom are pulling international brand talent into the region.
Saudi Arabia's retail and F&B market is scaling fast under Vision 2030, new malls, entertainment districts and delivery platforms, while the UAE keeps absorbing international concepts at pace. Every entry needs experienced brand, operations and concept leadership on the ground early.
Brands that can employ their market-entry layer compliantly in days protect their opening dates and their franchise relationships. An EOR provides that without waiting on JV or entity structures.
Reflects GCC retail-market conditions and Vision 2030 programmes as of 2026. Franchise-market structures should be confirmed per territory.
Retail entries are judged on the first opening, the landlord, the franchisee and the customer all see whether the brand showed up ready. The brands that land well have their country leadership compliantly employed and in-market long before the ribbon is cut.
Four steps, fully managed
Scope the entry team
Roles, territories, opening calendar. We confirm routes per market.
Compliant contracts
Retail agreements with brand-standards and confidentiality obligations.
Visa & onboarding
Residency visas, Emirates ID/Iqama, medicals, handled.
Employ & run payroll
WPS payroll, allowances, gratuity and HR, managed by us.
What brands ask first.