BDL STEPS UP

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Updated : February 3, 2014 05:25  pm,
By Editor

Distributor seeks to accelerate its overall Business and emulate its success in Saudi Arabia while driving a strong focus on its Tablet Brand ‘Quantum’

BDL Gulf has relocated its regional headquarters to Dubai and is eyeing consolidation and aggressive growth rates for its Distribution Business. The regional distributor is also taking firm steps at enhancing the brand presence of its Tablet brand Quantum.

“We have achieved success in Saudi Arabia and are a strong leader in IT distribution there. To add to this, we have also achieved significant success in mobile phones distribution. We are seeking to emulate the success story here with our move to set up the regional HQ in Dubai and bring a strong level of focus on the overall Distribution Business as well as our own Tablet Brand ‘Quantum’”, says Tamer Ismail, CEO, BDL Group .

He adds, “We started in the Gulf in 2006 and we have been here long enough. Now we are looking to grow the Business faster as well as ensure that we become a significant player in the Tablet market. While the Quantum tablets are available in KSA, we are looking to introduce the brand in the UAE and across the region.”

According to BDL’s internal market studies, there are more than 100 brands of Tablets already present across the regional market. So the distributor is not relying on price as a differentiator, the focus will be on offering an unprecedented high level of services that satisfy customers with quality products.

Tamer says, “We are ascertaining quality at all levels including quality of components used in our tablets so that the performance benchmarks are quite high for our products. We are quite selective in choosing partners who sell our products as well, making sure they have a good focus and the required expertise to make the brand succeed. The fact is that we want to ensure the customer’s experience of owning our product would be unmatched. This is how we seek to stand out as a Brand in the Tablet market.”

Although Quantum is owned by the BDL Group, it is functionally an independent operation here. Eventually the team responsible for Quantum in Dubai is likely to have a separate office. Quantum also has an office in Hong Kong. BDL Distribution will be a master distributor for Quantum across the region. However, BDL has further appointed in-country distributors in Algeria, India, Yemen, Russia etc as well to cover markets where BDL doesn’t have operations.

One of the key directions will also be to strengthen presence with more major power retailers. They are in the process of negotiations and finalizing with some of the power retailers with whom they haven’t yet established a partnership.

One of the major priorities for Tamer and his team this year would be to consolidate its distribution portfolio in the region. While the distributor will strengthen its current vendor relationships and do more Business with them, it will look to add new brands that will help to enhance its portfolio.

Tamer says, “BDL will seek 100% growth in the region. We have strong conviction that we can achieve this in 2014. We see promising conditions for this. With the expo 2020 initiative gathering momentum, there will be more visitor footfall in Dubai which can help drive sales of consumer technology products like Tablets. Across the region, Qatar is preparing for the soccer World cup that is also fuelling a great momentum. Growth in Saudi Arabia continues to be stable. So we have a positive outlook looking at all these developments for the GCC and Levant. We have had good growth in Kenya, Ethiopia as well in the African market. There is more room to grow in these markets.”

While BDL comes from a primarily consumer distribution model wherein it sells through retailers and resellers, it will now look at enabling partners that sell into large enterprise and government accounts.

“We are focused on ICT products in KSA. There is a focus on traditional IT products like Tablets, Monitors plus a focus on Tablets, Mobile phones, Memory cards, Flash Memory etc. We are distributors for Samsung mobile in Saudi. We are looking to fashion a similar profile here. We have been selling other Tablet brands including Asus, Axtrom, MSI, HCL etc in addition to our own brand Quantum. We might add a couple of more Tablet brands very soon to create a very comprehensive portfolio,” says Tamer.

The distributor is relying on strengthening its proven team. The company is also hoping to strengthen its channel relationships.

Tamer adds, “We have a good set of people always working to grow the Business. We will continue to have a good team that will be working closely with the channel. We will focus on enhancing the channel relationships through sufficient credit limits, good services and honest feedback as well as transparency in our dealings. All of this will be done serving the three pillar of IT, Mobiles and Telecom.”