http://www.zawya.com/story/Dubai_breeding_IT_companies-GN_05102012_061038/
Friday, Oct 05, 2012
Dubai
Vasant Menghani appears to be an ordinary man. However, he has done something extra-ordinary - creating 32 companies within 24 years - and all in Dubai.
For someone who owns a $400 million conglomerate, Menghani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Quality Gulf Group, appears a down-to-earth man.
http://www.qualitygulf.com/
He is one of many businessmen who have first benefited from Dubai’s thriving electronics and IT trade and then contributed to the emirate’s growth later by creating his own IT brand - Touchmate. It started as a local assembly offshoot of Quality Computers LLC, based in Khalid Bin Walid Steet - Dubai’s once thriving Computer Street - and, has grown to become a regional IT brand that currently has more than 1,100 products under one roof.
At the beginning of its establishment in 1988, the company used to sell imported desktop computers, then started assembling them locally before venturing into developing its own brand. Today, his company’s retail network has spread across 13 outlets and 160 hypermarkets in the GCC with offices and logistics bases present in India, Hong Kong, China and the UAE. Managed by 250 people, it has distribution in 60 countries.
Currently his group turnover exceeds Dh1.46 billion ($400 million) a year. However, his biggest achievement, he feels is the creation of a successful brand - that could probably compete with any international brands.
Touchmate is not the only one in this game, however. There have been many - such as SMB, Blue Bell, MegaPlus, to name a few.
Many of Dubai’s computer retailers started to assemble personal computers for redistribution to different countries in the early 1990s. Larger numbers of buyers from the Middle East, Asia and Africa usually buy computer hardware and accessories from Dubai’s then flourishing Computer Street. In the absence of sales tax, value added tax and low import duty, computers are usually 10-15 per cent cheaper in Dubai. So, many local PC assemblers cashed in on the opportunities while the going was good.
Similarly, electronics traders, who have long benefited from Dubai’s red tape-free, tax-free environment, have also invested part of their wealth into developing consumer electronics brands, such as Supra, Nikai, Geepas, Abu Hosn, Aftron, Alonsa and Elekta, among many others.
This is how, Dubai, which has thrived on merchandise trade, has also become one of the most popular breeding grounds for electronics and IT brands in the Middle East - giving birth to more than 50 brands.
Their business model has three essential ingredients - utilising cost-effective technology, cheap Chinese labour and mass manufacturing infrastructure. Secondly, using Dubai’s geographic and logistics advantage, efficiency of its ports as well as its position as a re-export hub to emerging markets plays a key role. And thirdly - branding and marketing in Dubai gives them instant success.
Some of the brand owners are smarter. Headquartered in Dubai, they register brand names in Japan - to give the products a Japanese identity - so that it could be sold as a Japanese product. Then they design, develop products and outsource manufacturing to Chinese factories and ship them to Dubai for re-export.
Dubai’s traders who have long arms and financial muscles, usually gain easy access to new markets. Products made in Japan and shipped from Dubai - carry an automatic guarantee of quality in the minds of retailers and consumers. Hence, success is almost a given thing.
“Mine is not a Japanese brand. It’s made in the UAE and born in Dubai,” Menghani points out quickly. “I could have also branded Touchmate as a Japanese brand. But I am proud of Dubai and the success of my company is a reflection of what Dubai as a city offers to those who want to make it big.”
These companies invest millions of dollars in product development, branding exercise and marketing campaigns to reposition the brand name. They command a premium on prices of each product based on the brand’s popularity.
However, many of these companies could not sustain businesses as the global electronics IT industry began to face challenges. The industry underwent a sea change during the last two decades from 88 processor-powered PCs to 386s, 486s, the Pentium-powered desktops - PI, PII, PIII and PIV before laptops began to take over PC sale. Many local brands could not cope with rising costs, lower sale price and declining margins.
Despite these factors, UAE’s consumer electronics market continued to grow and is estimated to reach a value of $3.8 billion in 2012, according to a report by Business Monitor International (BMI). This is expected to increase to $4.8 billion by 2016, driven by the popularity of new electronic devices such as LED and 3G TV sets, 3G mobile handsets, smartphones, feature-rich notebooks, MP3/MP4 players and Blu-ray players.
“Electronics and IT trade will continue to thrive in Dubai simply due to the opportunities around this market and how Dubai’s logistics and connectivity help its trading community,” Faisal Vahedna, managing director of Vahedna Trading LLC, an electronics wholesaler and retailer, says.
Dubai’s success with IT and electronics was so widely spread, that a UK based brand, I-Mate had later relocated its base to Dubai.
“The key to Dubai remaining at the centre of this trade lies in the efficiency of its ports, customs and logistics facilities. We are successful in feeding the consumers of the emerging markets due to these factors,” Vahedna says.
Computer hardware accounts for 54 per cent of the UAE’s consumer electronics spending. BMI forecasts domestic market computer hardware sales - including notebooks and accessories - of $2 billion in 2012, up from $1.9 billion in 2011. Computer hardware sale is expected to grow at 7 per cent annually between over 2012-2016.
However, despite the sky-rocketing success of these brands, the companies did not invest in manufacturing facilities in the UAE. They still remain pretty much a trading community as far as the UAE is concerned. So, instead of creating jobs in the UAE, they are busy protecting Chinese jobs.
“A number of factors would be relevant, three of which are existence of supply chains, unit cost, and skilled labor pool. China has become the workshop of the world by virtue of combining these elements,” Dr. Giyas Gokkent, NBAD’s Group Chief Economist, says.
Their investment in manufacturing or assembly could have created more jobs.
Most electronics and IT products use petrochemicals especially the casing and other components. As an oil producer, the UAE is developing downstream capabilities that could encourage many industries to relocate in the UAE in future.
“Clustering and creation of supply chains is part of government strategy in a number of different sectors,” Gokkent says.
Chinese factory offers low-cost production and the economies of scale that the UAE might not be able to match, unless they are either heavily subsidised or incentivised.
“Mubadala holds a stake in AMD which is a leading U.S.-based chip manufacturer for computers, communications and consumer electronics markets. It had been announced earlier that Mubadala investments in AMD formed part of a broader initiative of the Abu Dhabi Government to introduce semiconductor manufacturing capabilities to Abu Dhabi,” Gokkent says.
However, Menghani is planning to change that. “We are working on to set up a small assembly line at Dubai Investment Park,” he says. “Developing manufacturing or assembly line in this part of the world is risky - simply due to the cost factor. However, if our current initiative becomes successful, we will expand our production capabilities here.”
Although Tochmate initially was groomed as a personal computer brand, it has later added a whole range of other products - notebooks, tablets, accessories, peripherals and mobile phones - including smartphones. It has launched six smartphones and 25 tablets in recent months as the IT market is undergoes another major shift.
“While we sell 1,000 laptops a month, our tablet sale has gone up to 150,000 a month and it’s growing,” he says. “As the business changes, so are we. That’s the name of the game.”
There will hardly be anyone to doubt that.
By Saifur Rahman Business Editor Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
TOUCHMATE
TOUCHMATE is the largest manufacturer & distributor and a household name for Notebooks, Computers, Accessories, Peripherals, House Hold Appliances, Mobiles & Softwares. TOUCHMATE has its presence in more than 60 Countries across the globe.
We offer more than 1500 products range at any given time. Touchmate has a state of art Research & Development facilities in China and Taiwan. Touchmate offers a widest spectrum of products in 10 different categories. Touchmate products are widely available in major retail stores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and even at gas stations. Touchmate also operates tow fully equipped PC & Notebook assembling factories in Jebel Ali and Dubai having a production capacity of 8000+ Pc's and Notebooks per month.
The story of Quality Computer which was the first member of the group began in 1988, when we established ourselves in Dubai as a 'Trader'. Slowly, but steadily, the brand portfolio of our products, the brands we distributed and our markets of operation increased. Over the years we consolidated our position as a distributor for IT products, in a nascent region, by understanding geographies and exploring possibilities.
Quality Computer is the 'Partner of Choice' for over 20 leading global brands in IT and Telecom. With a commanding presence in more than 20 markets, through Valued Channel Partners,today Quality Computers is proud to be described as 'the Brand behind brands' in the region.
On the Hong Kong Electronics fair Touchmate presented their new netbook, called PC210. Specifications is as below:
- 10.2″ WXGA 1024×600 LED
- Via C7-M 1.6Ghz CPU
- 1 GB RAM DDR2
- 120 SATA GB HDD
- Wlan (a/b/g)
- Via UniChrome Pro graphics
- Webcam
Touchmate shows products
Touchmate is promoting
its new range of products. The company was established in the UAE in
1988.
The company produces a wide range of notebooks and desktops and has numerous partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, Intel, nVidia and Western Digital. It also has a range of other products including wireless MP5 players, used battery chargers and a new 7-inch MID Android tablet with WiFi, Bluetooth, a digital camera and a rechargeable battery.
Vasant Meghani, Managing Director of Touchmate Middle East comments, “Touchmate is a brand of the UAE which has been given the thumbs up by the government. It has been in existence for 22 years and we can be relied on to deliver a better, cost effective product compared to other MNCs.”
Pressed further about the products on display at the trade show Meghani explains, “During Gitex we are launching our 3D PC with a nVidia GPU and with Intel we are launching the Speedo Core I line. The computers are available with Intel Core i5 processors and 4GB of RAM. To differentiate ourselves from the crowd, we are giving every customer who buys a notebook or PC, free ‘Crash Proof’ software, which allows for instant recovery of data even upon deletion or malicious attacks.
In addition, owing to the difficult financial times we are also giving away free of cost software developed by us called Expense Control.This software is free to all customers who buy a computer from Touchmate, meaning that they benefit from over AED1000 worth of free software. Touchmate’s intentions are to give the best to our customers.”
The firm also operates in India under the Touchmate India banner. This is a joint venture between Touchmate ME and Unistal, which has been operating for the past three months.
999.00 AED
| ||||||||||||||||
http://www.touchmatepc.com/new/ |
Export Sales
TOUCHMATE IN BRIEF
TOUCHMATE
M.E Free Zone Co. a group of 32 companies, origins date back to 1988, is the
largest manufacturer & distributor for TOUCHMATE Range of Computers,
Accessories, Peripherals, House Hold Appliances, Mobiles & Softwares, which
are best for Corporates, Distributions, Dealer Channels, Supermarkets and Retail
Chains.
We
offer over 1100+ products range and have heavily invested in R&D with Taiwan
and Chinese factories for best product development . We have lately added
another feather to our cap by opening new office in Hongkong which will handle
our TOUCHMATE house hold appliances. Also reflecting our on going commitment to
technological enhancement, we have two state of the art PC assembling
factories having production capacity of approx 6000+ PC's per month.
Our
main objective is to provide all computer & accessories products under one
Brand TOUCHMATE from one unique source at the most competitive prices to our
Customers to lessen their import headache from several suppliers.
TOUCHMATE
is well known Global IT Brand for High Quality, Reliability, Best Performance.
TOUCHMATE has presence in more than 60 Countries all over the world. TOUCHMATE
has sales office in Shenzhen, China to serve Direct Big Quantity Shipments. To
Provide the Excellent Service & Ready Stock Availability, TOUCHMATE M.E.
FZCO has its Free Zone operation in Jebel Ali (Dubai) from where we offer
consolidation of Assorted Items, Immediate Delivery, Ready Stock to Our Export
Client.
| PRODUCT CATEGORIES |  |
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
| |||
|
Published October 21, 2010
this is very aggressive post about Dubai breeding ground of IT companies. thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSingapore Advertising Company | Advertising Agency